Johann Lamont backs Anas Sarwar to become Scottish Labour leader

Former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont yesterday issued a staunch defence of Anas Sarwar's character as the race for the leadership of the party north of the Border draws to a conclusion.
Former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont is backing Anas Sarwar to take control of the party. Picture: John Devlin/TSPLFormer Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont is backing Anas Sarwar to take control of the party. Picture: John Devlin/TSPL
Former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont is backing Anas Sarwar to take control of the party. Picture: John Devlin/TSPL

With the winning candidate due to be announced on Saturday, Lamont declared she was backing Sarwar in his battle against Richard Leonard.

A prominent feature of what has been a fiery contest has been attacks on Sarwar for sending his children to private school and his links to a family firm which does not pay all staff the living wage.

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Sarwar is regarded as the more moderate candidate and is seen as the underdog compared with Leonard, the left wing trade unionist who is close to Jeremy Corbyn.

Lamont insisted the leadership battle was not a “proxy test for our loyalty to our UK leader”.

She said she wanted to make her support public because she believes the “cartoon depiction of his character unacceptable and deeply unfair”.

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Lamont said: “Anas was my deputy at a time of heightened challenges for our country and he and I worked closely as we fought to support Scotland’s place in the UK and to begin the battle to win back voters to Labour’s cause.

“His loyalty to me was a constant in a world of upheaval, a loyalty as certain in private as it might be on public display. I saw close up his energy, tenacity, clarity of thinking. I saw his politics allied to organisation that took him out on to the doors, engaging in the arguments, not just directing from the centre. I saw then, as I see now, someone who listens to people’s concerns and understands the root causes. He seeks answers and solutions, and persists in his desire to make a difference. That is what our party needs now.”

Lamont added: “It is testimony to his loyalty and values that Anas remained steadfast in his support for Labour when many of his friends and in his community had turned away from us.”

In the article, published

on Sarwar’s campaign website, she said she had initially planned to keep her views on the leadership contest private, saying that there is “little so ‘ex’ as an ex-leader”.

But she stated: “I now have decided to add my thoughts because I have become increasingly concerned at the gap between what this contest could have meant, and how it is now being conducted.”

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Writing in Scotland on Sunday today, both candidates outline why they believe they are the best candidate to succeed Kezia Dugdale, who resigned unexpectedly earlier this year.

Sarwar writes that he has the credentials to be a future First Minister of Scotland and acknowledges that the leadership campaign has “not always been conducted in the comradely spirit that most of us hoped for”.

He argues that his campaign has remained positive and has put forward “radical, bold” ideas.

Leonard argues that with Labour in third place, behind the SNP and the Tories, the party has to be bold and stick to Labour principles “rather than simply manage, manoeuvre and position to win support”.

Viewpoint: We can’t go back to the old way of doing politics, says Richard Leonard

Now more than ever Scotland needs a united Labour Party committed to real and bold change.

We are at a turning point. We simply cannot go back to an old style of politics, we must go forward learning the lessons of the June general election where we stood on a radical manifesto which offered people hope in a campaign led by Jeremy Corbyn, a principled and consistent leader, who embodied that sense of hope.

Almost 13 million people voted for a Labour vision which committed us to extending public ownership, to ending austerity and so properly investing again in our public services and to redistributing wealth and power.

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I have always believed that it is important to act according to Labour principles rather than simply manage, manoeuvre and position to win support. This means taking more chances. Labour is in third place, and unless we are audacious now we will never win back the support of the people of Scotland.

So in this campaign I have made clear that we must end poverty including poverty pay, promote the Living Wage and trade union organisation and make work secure; that we need to tackle rogue private landlords and embark on a massive social housing building programme; that we need an industrial strategy for the 21st century; re-empowered and properly resourced local government; a renaissance of public and co-operative ownership and new and innovative public investment in public services; more economic planning and less market in the economy and a radical redistributionist policy that taxes wealth as well as income more progressively.

These are the radical ideas that can reach out and win back those voters that Labour has lost in Scotland. It is an approach which will build a bridge to young voters, and it will bring renewed belief to Labour voters who have stuck with us through thick and thin.

We need a campaigning Scottish Labour Party that learns from the past to take on the challenges of the future. And leadership that understands the words of Clement Attlee that “the thing which will secure the triumph of Labour will be the demonstration by socialists in their lives that they have a high ideal and live up to it.”

That is the promise I make to Scottish Labour Party members and to the people of Scotland. It is the choice of transformation and hope, a vision of a more equal Scotland. And it is the promise too of a Scottish Labour leadership driven by ideals but grounded in experience: not just words but action, founded on consistency and so credibility in putting forward the case for the real and radical change which Scotland badly needs.