Former first minister Jack McConnell has urged incoming Labour leader Andy Burnham to back a “proper review” into Scottish Labour’s worst-ever Holyrood election result. Lord McConnell, the last Labour first minister, said an in-depth analysis of “what went wrong” for the party is needed following its defeat in May 2026.
Call for a Detailed Review
Speaking to Holyrood magazine, Lord McConnell said: “There’s no evidence so far that a proper review is going on with what went wrong in the election campaign, and I think unless you have a proper review, things get worse instead of better.” He drew parallels with the 2007 election, where Labour lost by only half a percentage point but failed to hold an open debate, which he believes contributed to the 2011 defeat.
“I would go back to 2007 where there was never an open and extended debate on why we had lost, I think, because we only lost by half a per cent. People thought, ‘well, if you change the leader and we have some new people in place, it’ll all swing back again’, instead of saying, ‘we’ve got some time here in opposition to have a debate, to open up’, and when you do that, you end up with, I think, ultimately with better ideas and a way forward,” he said.
Role of Current Leaders
Lord McConnell said current Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar “should be calling for that kind of detailed review” into what went wrong. He added: “I think Andy [Burnham] should be saying there needs to be that and that he wants to hear the results of that review of the evidence.”
He appeared to back Mr Sarwar staying on as leader, stating: “If he feels that he still has a contribution to make, and that he can be part of that recovery, supporting those MPs and the work that they are doing, then I think people would respect that choice.”
Scrapping the Scotland Office
The former first minister also called for the abolition of the Scotland Office, describing it as “ridiculous”. He proposed merging the territorial offices into a single Department of the Nations and Regions, with a powerful leader who has regular access to the prime minister.
“I think it’s ridiculous that we still have a Scotland Office and a Wales Office. I would scrap them and put the three territorial national offices inside a big Department of the Nations and Regions with a powerful leader who has got the regular ear of the prime minister and is a leader within the cabinet,” he told Holyrood magazine.
Civil Service Reforms
Lord McConnell also suggested regular exchanges of civil servants between Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and London to improve understanding. He proposed that senior civil servants should be required to spend time on secondment in other parts of the UK.
“If anybody wants to be a perm sec or a director or whatever in the UK Government, spend some time with one of the devolved governments and just get the whole system to knit together better and get to understand each other better,” he said.
