Keir Starmer admits he 'ruthlessly sacked Richard Leonard to take advantage of potential recovery' as SNP's Mhairi Black says Scottish Labour a 'branch office'

Sir Keir Starmer has admitted he effectively sacked the-then Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard in a bid to avoid the party reaching “base camp” in the polls in Scotland.

The UK Labour leader, in an interview with The Times, said he had to take “some pretty ruthless decisions” to turn his party around after the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Mr Leonard resigned just months before the 2021 Scottish Parliamentary election after being told by Sir Keir he had no confidence in the former Scottish Labour head’s leadership.

Anas Sarwar, who beat Monica Lennon in a leadership election, led Scottish Labour to third place in that election after marginally improving the party’s performance in the polls.

Since the resignation of both former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, Labour’s share of the vote has surged across the UK. Scottish Labour is now just six points behind the SNP in voting intentions for the next Westminster election, a poll by Savanta for The Scotsman showed last week.

The then Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard during First Minster's Questions in the debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

The SNP said the admission confirmed Scottish Labour was “nothing more than a branch office under Westminster control”.

Sir Keir said he required “complete ruthlessness” to push Labour towards recovery, pointing to the departure of Jennie Formby as general secretary and the recent decision to block Mr Corbyn from standing as a candidate.

He said: “We knew what we had to do with the general secretary. Look at Scotland, for example, now Sturgeon has gone. We may have an opportunity to win votes. But frankly if we hadn’t changed the leader in Scotland two years ago, we would be at base camp rather than in a position to take advantage of that.”

The left-wing faction within Labour, Momentum, tweeted: “Long suspected, now brazenly admitted: The UK Labour Leader actively forced out Scottish Labour’s democratically-elected leader. A shocking attack on devolution & democracy.”

The SNP’s deputy leader in Westminster, Mhairi Black, said the admission “revealed the contempt he [Starmer] holds for Scottish democracy”.

Ms Black said: “Keir Starmer has admitted what we've all known for a very long time – that Scottish Labour is nothing more than a branch office under Westminster control. When Keir Starmer says jump, Anas Sarwar asks how high.

“By boasting about sacking Richard Leonard, Starmer has once again revealed the contempt he holds for Scottish democracy and has shown that Anas Sarwar will continue to play to Westminster's tune no matter the disastrous consequences for Scotland.

"Sarwar has already been forced to ditch his principles and back the pro-Brexit Labour Party's opposition to Scotland re-joining the EU. That's despite more people than ever before in Scotland rejecting Brexit.

"And he's failed to voice opposition to Keir Starmer's Tory spending cuts, which would see damaging real-terms cuts to public services, public sector pay and social security.

“We cannot trust the pro-Brexit Labour party to stand up for the people of Scotland anymore than we can trust the Tories. Westminster control is holding Scotland back and the only way we can flourish is by becoming an independent country.”

Friends of Mr Leonard pointed to a video posted on the MSP’s Twitter account about Keir Hardie. The post states: “Hardie was a political leader who wanted to shape, not simply follow public opinion.”

Want to hear more from The Scotsman's politics team? Check out the latest episode of our political podcast, The Steamie.

It's available wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.