‘I’m as Scottish as anyone’ Labour hopeful Tom Harris tells hostile MSPs

LEADERSHIP hopeful Tom Harris has hit out at Labour MSPs who have snubbed his “unacceptable” bid to head the party in Scotland.

The MP said his decision to stand may be seen as a “hostile takeover”, but warned that the public “will not understand” why a Westminster candidate is being ruled out by Holyrood.

Mr Harris launched his bid to become the new Scottish leader of the party in Edinburgh yesterday. The party’s decline in recent years, he said, was down to it “abandoning” large parts of Scotland, such as the north, and relying too much on its west of Scotland and Central Belt core vote.

While MSPs may be ready to “tolerate” his candidacy, Mr Harris said: “They seem to have decided, collectively, that it would be unacceptable for an MP actually to win.”

He said this was “discouraging”, adding that the public wanted someone who would be seen as a credible future First Minister.

“I fear they will not understand why an important and influential section of the Scottish Labour Party seems to believe that the number of letters after a candidate’s name trumps all those qualifications,” he said.

The new leader will head the whole party in Scotland, after rule changes were backed by the party. Currently outgoing leader Iain Gray only leads the MSPs at Holyrood, with UK leader Ed Miliband leading MPs in Scotland as well.

Mr Harris said: “I am a Scottish politician. I represent a Glasgow constituency. I’m as Scottish as any other Scottish politician in my party.”

Mr Harris is facing competition from MSPs Johann Lamont and Ken Macintosh for the leadership.

He rejected the idea that MSPs were Labour’s “C team” and insisted his comments were not meant to be “scathing”.

He added: “I actually totally understand why Labour MSPs in particular are reluc- tant to see what they probably perceive as an attempt at a hostile takeover. It is nothing of the sort.

“But they have been very badly criticised, I think unjustly. I saw someone on television at the weekend talking about Labour’s B or even C team being sent to Holyrood, and that actually doesn’t stand up to any analysis whatsoever.”

Mr Harris said he supported the findings of the Calman Commission on the future of devolution but added he wanted to remove constitutional arguments from the “front and centre of every single thing that we do and say”.

He said: “I want a standing commission, chaired by whoever, maybe Calman himself, I don’t know, to keep devolution in all parts of the UK under constant review, to look at the evidence for any case for either re-reserving or newly devolving any powers.

“Allow them to get on with the job, and here’s the radical bit: I want Scottish politicians to actually use devolution and use the powers of the Scottish Parliament.”