Anas Sarwar’s move to the House of Lords has left Scottish Labour facing a leadership contest it “probably could have done without”, one of the party’s MPs conceded.
Michael Shanks spoke out after Mr Sarwar quit as Scottish Labour leader last month, stepping down from the post he had held for some five years. Mr Sarwar has now swapped Holyrood for the House of Lords, taking up a post as a UK Government minister in Andy Burnham’s Government.
Timing of departure a surprise
Mr Shanks said the timing of the former Scottish Labour leader’s departure had “come as a surprise to many” in the party, with a review currently under way into the May Holyrood election defeat. Labour suffered their worst ever Scottish Parliament election result in that ballot, returning 17 MSPs to Holyrood.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast, Mr Shanks said it was “important” that the review will continue, despite Mr Sarwar’s departure. Asked if he could understand the anger of many within the party over the former leader’s decision to go, the MP said he could “understand that”.
Rebuilding the party
Speaking about the move, Mr Shanks admitted: “It came as a surprise. I think it has plunged us into a leadership election now which we probably could have done without when we were in the process of reviewing why we lost in May. But I think it has happened now, we need to rebuild as a party.”
He said Mr Sarwar had given “a huge amount of time and energy to the Scottish Labour Party over many, many years”, adding that he had “made that choice to become a minister in the Government – I have no doubt he will do a good job”. However, he said Labour had not been “ambitious enough” in its offering to voters in the May Scottish election.
The Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP stated: “I think we have got a challenge that we need to rebuild trust with the Scottish electorate. We need to be really clear and ambitious about what our plan is for Scotland. I don’t think we were ambitious enough in May and I think resulted in the election result we had.”
Leadership hustings ahead
His comments came ahead of the first leadership hustings between the three MSPs vying to succeed Mr Sarwar, with Joe Fagan, Monica Lennon and Michael Marra set to face each other at an event in Glasgow on Wednesday night. Mr Shanks said he had not yet decided who he would back, saying he had not “put forward my nomination yet”.
Looking to the future he said: “Fundamentally we have to bring together the party, take seriously why not just we lost in May but why we have gone backwards in every single election in Scotland, ask some really difficult questions of ourselves.” But he also stressed Labour must “take seriously the fact that we have got a responsibility to provide opposition to the SNP at this moment in time” adding that “too much naval gazing” would not be in the party’s best interest.
