Who cares who leads Scottish Labour?

“Who cares who leads Labour?” – That was the response from a former senior Labour figure when I asked them about the Scottish leadership race.

Following Anas Sarwar’s somewhat sudden departure for the House of Lords and a ministerial job in new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Government, the race is on.

I’m not saying it’s hotting up yet. At this stage it is barely tepid, because Labour in Scotland is a party that is a long way off the boil.

It does matter to some people though – it matters to Labour MSPs, because whoever wins will be their boss.

They will be expected to cheer their leader on at FMQs every Thursday, defend their party line on TV, radio and online.

All of that is easier if the leader is someone you support, or at least respect. And the leader has to be an MSP and needs three MSPs to nominate them, so you can see how it matters to them.

It also matters to Labour councillors and candidates in next year’s local government elections.

In 2022, Labour got 282 councillors elected across Scotland with almost 22% of the vote – well behind the SNP but a couple of points ahead of the Conservatives.

Of Scotland’s 32 councils, nine have Labour leaders with the party involved in another two administrations.

Whoever wins the Scottish Labour leadership will be the figurehead for the party in the 2027 election. So you can see why it’s important to them.

It matters to Labour members and trade union members, who pay their political levy to affiliate to Labour, because they will all have a vote.

In 2017, that amounted to more 33,000 people, with 22,000 of them actually voting, which was a pretty decent turnout.

Richard Leonard beat Anas Sarwar in that contest, and my recollection of it was that it was all a bit low-key.

It came just after the 2017 General Election when Corbyn-mania and the left was about at a peak within Labour.

By 2021, Starmer was Labour leader, and Leonard was forced out. That contest saw Sarwar beat Monica Lennon for the leadership. It all seemed a bit low-key (at least in my mind) as well now, and that makes me think this Scottish Labour leadership contest will be quite low-key too, maybe lower than ever, given they have fewer MSPs than ever before.

Who is in the running?

The race to replace Sarwar has started so low-key that the frontrunner is on holiday and has had to launch his campaign remotely.

North-East list MSP, Michael Marra looks like the obvious heir to Sarwar both in terms of politics and personality – someone described him to me as “Anas without the dancing”.

He launched his leadership campaign with a short video online – squinting into the sunlight, with the Tay and Dundee’s Magdalen Green bandstand behind him, he tells us he wants to lead Labour on the “road to recovery”.

Given that Labour suffered its worst-ever Scottish election defeat in May that looks like a long and hard road.

Monica Lennon lost out to Sarwar in 2021, and lost her Holyrood seat in May, but because Sarwar has quit the Scottish Parliament for the Lords she is back as an MSP, and just in time for another leadership contest.

Although she will not be officially sworn in as an MSP until Parliament returns in September, by which time nominations for the leadership contest will have closed, the party has decided to consider her an MSP already and so she just needs the support of three MSPs, three MPs and three affiliates (including two trades unions) to get on the ballot paper.

The MSPs who backed her last time are no longer in Parliament but she is confident she has the nominations.

Lennon actually narrowly beat Sarwar in the affiliates vote in 2021 but lost by a much bigger margin with members. She is coming from the left of Labour and says the party needs “radical and fast change” or faces “oblivion”.

There are another two possible candidates. West of Scotland MSP Katy Clark is said to be considering standing.

I have to admit I don’t know much about Clark. I know she comes from the left and was an MP and member of the Lords, but since she was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2021, I don’t think I have ever interviewed her. I have tried on at least one occasion, but she refused to speak to me.

I asked some people in Labour why two candidates from the left might stand against each other, splitting the vote. I am told it is because of the gender debate – Lennon was pro-Gender Recognition Reform and Clark was opposed.

The other potential wild card is newly elected MSP for the South of Scotland, Joe Fagan.

MSP for the South of Scotland, Joe Fagan (right) Getty Images

He was leader of South Lanarkshire Council until May. He had been in the back of my mind as one to watch among the new intake of MSPs. It might seem a bit early to be tilting at the party leadership, but that’s exactly what he is doing. Some in the party are mooting him as an alternative to Marra.

So some people do care who leads Labour. I have already seen some MPs, MSPs and councillors declaring support for a candidate (Marra), so this is not just bald men fighting over a comb, there are people out there who do care who leads Labour.

I don’t know how many, because they won’t tell me their membership numbers and calculating the numbers of voters through trade unions is really complicated and the party won’t work that out for another few weeks.

Andy Burnham might even care, after all the new Prime Minister created this contest, even although he didn’t face a leadership contest of his own. He was unopposed, but there will be no coronation here.

Nominations open on Monday, for two weeks. To vote you must have been a Labour member for the last six months or be an affiliated supporter through a socialist society, or a trade union and have paid your political levy.