Exclusive: Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont resigns

[Graham]

Exclusive: Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont resigns

Oct 24, 2014 21:38 By Record Reporter
IN an exclusive Daily Record interview Johann Lamont announces her resignation as Labour leader and reveals her reasons for quitting.
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JOHANN Lamont tonight announced her immediate resignation as leader of the Scottish Labour Party .

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Record, the mother-of-two said she had no choice but to resign after her attempts to reform the Scottish party were thwarted by Labour’s Westminster leadership.

She has decided to quit despite helping lead the successful No campaign in the independence referendum .

In her Daily Record interview she said: “I am proud of what we have achieved over the last three years. We held Alex Salmond to account.”

But she hit out at internal Labour sniping about her leadership and criticised party bosses in London for not allowing the Scottish party more autonomy.

And she said some in Labour circles in Westminster “do not understand the politics they are facing”.

She said: “I am standing down so that the debate our country demands can take place.”

Lamont believes some Labour MPs at Westminster are too concerned about their own interests.

She said: “I firmly believe that Scotland’s place is in the UK and I do not believe in powers for power’s sake.

“For example, I think power should be devolved from Holyrood to communities.

“But colleagues need to realise that the focus of Scottish politics is now Holyrood, not Westminster.”

Her resignation leaves Labour with a massive headache just six months before the next UK general election, with no obvious successor waiting in the wings.

Whoever takes over will face new First Minister Nicola Sturgeon , who is expected to bring in several new faces to her cabinet when she takes office.

[Graham]

Westminster sticking the knife into Scots Labour backs. In the same way the Conservatives with Murdo fraser when he wanted to devolve the Conservatives from the Westminster strangle.

It'll be interesting who Labour can bring in now, not many left.. SNP have knocked down so many politicians in labour.

[Graham]

James Cook
BBC Scotland correspondent
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The Daily Record is a newspaper which needs to be handled carefully tomorrow.

It is full of barbs and they are aimed at one man in particular, Ed Miliband.

Johann Lamont calls her colleagues at Westminster "dinosaurs" who "think nothing has changed".

She has been unhappy for some time, aware of the plotting, the whispering and the briefing against her.

But one event appears to have been the final straw: the dismissal by the UK party leadership of Scottish Labour's general secretary Ian Price without her knowledge, let alone her approval.

Of course Mrs Lamont has had her critics.

To many observers Scottish Labour still appears to be in a parlous state, seven years after losing power at Holyrood to the Scottish National Party.

But losing Scottish Parliamentary elections is one thing, losing general elections is quite another and if Mr Miliband didn't realise the full extent of his problems north of the border and the potential harm they could do to his prospects of becoming prime minister, then he surely does now.

BBC Scotland understands that Ms Lamont has been unhappy for some time about the direction of party strategy.

In particular, she wanted more autonomy for the party in Scotland and significant new powers for the Scottish Parliament. She felt both of those objectives were being thwarted.

It is also understood that Ms Lamont was unhappy that a senior official of the Scottish party was to be removed from office without her being consulted.

Speaking to the Daily Record newspaper, Ms Lamont accused some Scottish Labour MPs at Westminster of being too concerned about their own interests and failing to realise that the "focus of Scottish politics is now Holyrood, not Westminster."

She said: "I am standing down so that the debate our country demands can take place."

Ms Lamont, a former English teacher who joined the Labour Party as a teenager, has represented the Glasgow Pollok constituency at Holyrood since 1999.

She took over as the party's Scottish leader in the aftermath of the 2011 election, where Labour suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the SNP.

In the weeks after the independence referendum, she said she wanted to lead Labour to victory in the next Holyrood election in 2016 and become first minister despite increasing speculation that her leadership faced significant internal opposition.

A UK Labour party source said: "She realised it was time for a change in Scotland, she has put the party first.

"Ed (Miliband) regards her as an honourable woman who has served the party well and we hope will serve the party again in the future."

Labour voters

Ms Lamont is the second Scottish party leader to resign following the referendum after First Minister Alex Salmond decided to step down from his role.

Mr Salmond will be replaced as first minister and SNP leader by deputy Nicola Sturgeon at their party conference in Perth next month, but it is much less clear who will replace Ms Lamont as Scottish Labour leader.

Earlier this week, two former Labour first ministers - Lord McConnell and Henry McLeish - suggested the party was in need of an overhaul.

Their comments came in the wake of many traditional Labour voters backing Scottish independence in last month's referendum.

Lord McConnell, who was first minister between 2001 until 2007, said the party must "rediscover our sense of purpose, our vision for Scotland".

His words echoed those of his predecessor Henry McLeish, who told the BBC: "There's no entitlement to a vote now. Labour has got to realise that every vote has got to be fought for."