Labour moves to loosen links with UK party

LABOUR has announced plans to create a new Scottish leader and a beefed-up party north of the Border to fight back against electoral dominance by the SNP.

The radical reforms, to be made following the crushing loss to the SNP in May’s Holyrood elections, will lead to the loosening of ties with the UK Labour movement with UK leader Ed Miliband no longer in charge of party fortunes in Scotland.

The results of a review into the Labour trouncing at the polls were made public yesterday and were billed as the biggest shake-up of the party in Scotland for 90 years.

They come a week after calls for the Scottish Conservative Party to be transformed and mean that the two leading UK parties are now undergoing changes that could bring a weakening of their bonds with Scotland.

Further reforms to Scottish Labour will see local party associations, which are currently drawn on Westminster seats, being scrapped and reformed along Holyrood’s boundaries in a move designed to shift the party’s focus to Edinburgh and away from Westminster.

The moves were agreed by the party’s ruling Scottish Executive committee yesterday, but they still have to be ratified by the UK Labour Party at its conference next month.

But sources say that Miliband has concluded that Scotland should “do as it pleases” in the bid to win back electoral support.

The review group also confirmed that the new Scottish leader – to be in place by mid-December – can be drawn from the MP, MSP, or MEP block.

Last night, three candidates were emerging. Glasgow MSP Johann Lamont confirmed her leadership bid last week. Glasgow South MP Tom Harris announced he would be standing, and Eastwood MSP Ken Macintosh will announce his own candidacy today.

The reforms were signed off in Glasgow after the three-month review led by MSP Sarah Boyack and MP Jim Murphy. They said that while the party had delivered devolution, it had failed to follow the same principles itself.

“This is about turning the Scottish Labour Party into Scotland’s Labour Party. Today, we are completing the devolution of the Scottish Labour Party,” Murphy said.

“From now on, whatever is devolved to the Scottish Parliament will be devolved to the Scottish Labour Party.”

Boyack said: “Labour devolved Scotland when we set up the Scottish Parliament in 1999, and we are proud of that. Labour used that Scottish Parliament to deliver important reforms for Scotland, but we didn’t reform ourselves.

“Now we need to make devolution a reality within our party too.”

Despite the widening of the leadership criteria, it is understood that MSPs won an assurance from other party members that the next leader should be drawn from their ranks.

One source said: “MSPs have accepted that others have a right to stand. But the message was, ‘look, don’t worry – it’ll be one of you’.”

Big hitters at Westminster, including Murphy and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander are believed to have ruled themselves out of the job.

Senior MEP David Martin is also not planning to stand, it is understood.

Harris, an MP contender, said: “This isn’t just about who should lead Scottish Labour – it’s about who should be the next Labour First Minister.

“We’re not a credible option for most Scottish voters at the moment. We need a leader who will appeal beyond Labour’s base, who will get the attention of those who have never voted for us before now.”

Meanwhile, it is also believed that union chiefs blocked plans to water down their influence in the complex voting arrangements for a new leader.

The review group recommended that councillors get more of a say, at the expense of parliamentarians, members and unions, but the plan was dumped.

In a nod to the poor communications between the party’s different factions since devolution, the review also recommended that the leader of the party, MPs, councillors and the party general-secretary all meet weekly to discuss strategy. Twelve years on from the creation of devolution, the Glasgow-based party will also set up a base in Edinburgh.

The reforms received a mixed reception last night from within the party. Former first minister Henry McLeish agreed that such a separate party, allied to UK Labour, should be “looked at. This is just the start of a much longer journey for Labour in Scotland”.

McLeish also said that the new leader must be an MSP. “After 12 years [of devolution] we would be sending a terrible statement that we can’t provide a person with leadership from the parliament to take Scotland and Labour forward.”

Shadow Scotland Office minister Tom Greatrex said: “This will make a difference in terms of facing up to what is required.

“But we also have to make sure we now get the policy right.”

But the moves to reform the constituency parties along Holyrood boundaries was attacked by one MP. Brian Donohoe said it would be “an act of crass stupidity” to do so as the boundaries of constituency parties had “nothing” to do with why Labour lost the Holyrood elections

The recommendations will now be debated at the UK conference in September and a special Scottish Labour conference at the end of October.

There was also speculation yesterday that the review will lead to a clear-out of the party’s senior officials.

However, a spokesman for the party last night denied any changes to the party’s backroom staff.