Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Scottish Labour’s leadership contest is turning ugly

The people’s flag is even deeper red in Scottish Labour, where the daggers are plunging in all directions amid a bloody leadership battle. 

Interim leader Alex Rowley has been secretly recorded admitting he backs left-wing candidate Richard Leonard, despite promising to remain neutral in the contest. It comes barely a week after Rowley’s turn as Fife’s answer to Mark Antony at First Minister’s Questions, where a jeremiad against millionaires was widely interpreted as a veiled denunciation of Anas Sarwar, the centrist candidate and a chap with a bob or two million to spare. 

The Rowley tape also contains a reference to ‘private discussions’ on the future of Kezia Dugdale, who has since departed as leader. It seems there was a plot against her after all but she spoiled it by going too soon and of her own accord. As a parting blow, though, she gave her then deputy Rowley just ten minutes’ notice before releasing her resignation to the media. 

The Sarwar camp is out for vengeance.

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