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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Curran considering leadership bid | Curran considering leadership bid |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| Labour MSP Margaret Curran has said she is actively considering whether or not to enter the race to succeed Wendy Alexander as Scottish Labour leader. | Labour MSP Margaret Curran has said she is actively considering whether or not to enter the race to succeed Wendy Alexander as Scottish Labour leader. |
| The former minister said she had been urged to stand by party members, but refused to rule the move in or out. | |
| Ms Alexander quit at the weekend amid the on-going row about donations to her leadership campaign. | Ms Alexander quit at the weekend amid the on-going row about donations to her leadership campaign. |
| The official process for selecting her successor is likely to get under way within the next few days. | The official process for selecting her successor is likely to get under way within the next few days. |
| Ms Curran, MSP for Glasgow Baillieston and currently Scottish Labour health spokeswoman, has been tipped as one of the front-runners to take the party forward, along with former health minister Andy Kerr and East Lothian MSP Iain Gray. | |
| 'New politics' | |
| The party's deputy leader Cathy Jamieson said at the weekend she had not ruled out standing herself. | |
| Speaking as she visited an ambulance depot in Glasgow, Ms Curran, a former communities minister and minister for parliament, said: "I have received representations from party members throughout the country to think about it and it's under active consideration." | |
| Meanwhile, former Labour first minister Henry McLeish said the new leader should ditch Ms Alexander's call for the SNP to "bring on" an immediate independence referendum. | |
| And in a hands-off warning to Gordon Brown, he urged the prime minister to accept the "new politics" in Scotland and that a distinctive Scottish Labour perspective was needed to confront the SNP. | |
| Ms Curran refused to be drawn on whether she wanted to see Ms Alexander's referendum position dropped, adding: "We'll have plenty of opportunities to discuss those matters during the summer period, which I'm looking forward to."Ms Alexander broke the rules on donations to her campaign | |
| Ms Alexander resigned after the Scottish Parliament's standards committee last week ruled she had breached the rules over the late declaration of campaign donations on her MSP register of interests. | Ms Alexander resigned after the Scottish Parliament's standards committee last week ruled she had breached the rules over the late declaration of campaign donations on her MSP register of interests. |
| The committee recommended that MSPs should ban her from parliament for one day - a move MSPs will not vote on until Holyrood returns from the summer recess in September. | |
| Ms Alexander insisted she followed the guidance of parliament officials over the donations, which she later declared following subsequent advice from independent standards watchdog Dr Jim Dyer. | Ms Alexander insisted she followed the guidance of parliament officials over the donations, which she later declared following subsequent advice from independent standards watchdog Dr Jim Dyer. |
| The SNP said it was not worried about who succeeded her. | |
| Finance Secretary John Swinney said Scottish Labour was in turmoil and rival factions were "fighting like ferrets in a sack". |