Scottish Labour leadership race about finding ‘party’s missing soul’ – Lennon

The race for the leadership of Scottish Labour is about finding “our party’s missing soul”, one of the contenders has said.

Monica Lennon has yet to secure enough support to secure her place on the ballot alongside fellow MSPs Michael Marra and Joe Fagan in the increasingly embittered contest, but stressed the need for “a full, honest debate where every candidate is put under the microscope”.

MSP Carol Mochan is the only Labour member at Holyrood yet to confirm their nomination and the last chance Ms Lennon has to be put before members.

Writing in the Sunday Mail, Ms Lennon told the party it was “in the last chance saloon”.

“Having lost sight of our roots, we struggle to place ourselves in Scotland’s future.

“It’s the worst of both worlds, but this identity crisis needn’t be the end of our story.

“People still need us, and we need them.”

The issues that led to May’s disappointing drop to 17 MSPs started well before the leaderships of Anas Sarwar and Sir Keir Starmer, she said.

“Scottish Labour inherited a proud legacy of socialist ideals and bold vision from our founders, yet our election campaign failed to inspire,” she wrote.

“If we are totally honest with ourselves, very few people in Scotland are paying attention to us any more.

“We have lost six Holyrood elections in a row and have spent nearly two decades angry at ourselves and the electorate since the SNP sidelined us into opposition in 2007.”

Addressing MPs and her fellow MSPs, Ms Lennon wrote that they “cannot act like a private club for parliamentarians alone”.

“Our real strength, weight and power lies with our grassroots activists, our affiliated trade unions, our councillors, and the working-class communities we were built to serve,” she said.

Michael Marra with former party leader Anas Sarwar PA Media

“If we attempt to rebuild from the top down, we will fail again.

“But if we embrace a radical overhaul from the ground up, there is no limit to what we can achieve.

“Together, we can reignite the socialist heart of our movement, and deliver the transformative Scottish Labour Party the people of Scotland so urgently deserve.”