Scottish Labour leadership contenders have warned against those leading internal briefings against candidates during a hustings in Glasgow.
Monica Lennon, Joe Fagan and Michael Marra made their cases to succeed Anas Sarwar as they made their pitches to rebuild Scottish Labour from electoral defeat.
Those attending the hour-long event were met by a handful of pro-Palestine protesters, whose shouts were heard during the first part of the event.
Candidates promise change after worst defeat
All three candidates promised changes to rebuild and unite the party following its worst Holyrood election defeat since devolution.
Ms Lennon issued dire warnings for the future of Scottish Labour, saying it was experiencing its “worst ever crisis”.
“The choice is stark,” she told members. “Either continue with the old ways that lost election and talented MSPs or choose a leader with the vision, courage and empathy to make it electable.”
The Glasgow MSP said she owed it to members to ensure Scottish Labour stopped “sleepwalk into electoral oblivion”, urging the party to get “out of this coma”.
Warnings against factionalism and smears
Ms Lennon made a plea for unity but said the party had to change, saying the “public don’t believe us when we say we are Scottish Labour”.
She also warned against “factionalism, dirty tricks and smears” and said she would not be “bullied” or “intimidated by those putting party control above principles”, without elaborating.
Mr Marra also warned against “negative cowardly briefings”, saying those who believed they could win votes were “dangerously deluded”.
Marra and Fagan call for cultural change
He said Scottish Labour had “refused to see” the election defeat coming and had failed to stop successive election losses, despite what he described as a “feckless, incompetent and corrupt SNP”.
The North East MSP told the crowd that the party’s problems were “much deeper than structures”, adding that the party “must change our culture”.
He said the next leader needed to “renew” the party and “rediscover its moral purpose”.
In his closing remarks, Mr Marra said the leadership contest was about choosing the candidate best able to “bring the party together” and “galvanise that movement”.
He warned: “If we don’t change, we’ll be here again in five years. And how’s that going to feel?”
Mr Fagan said Scottish Labour had to “change more than the faces at the top”.
The South Scotland MSP said the party had to be bold and get “squarely on the side of the working people of this country”.
“I am standing to unite our party, to back our movement, to seize this moment and rebuild Scottish Labour as a party for working people of Scotland,” he said.
Mr Fagan said Scottish Labour needed to rediscover its “courage, boldness and imagination” again.
“Let Scottish Labour decay, and when Labour decays, Scotland decays,” he said.
He called “caution and division” the party’s “deadly enemies”, saying “boldness, courage and unity are our only path”.
He also said Labour needed to “learn to win again”, arguing that it succeeded when it was “rooted in communities and serious about people’s lives”.
