Ed Miliband faces backlash over Scottish Labour turmoil

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/26/ed-miliband-backlash-scottish-labour-johann-lamont

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Ed Miliband will face “serious questions” this week about the “unacceptable treatment” of Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, after her resignation on Friday prompted a tide of criticism about the Westminster party’s attitude towards politics north of the border.

Miliband is expected to meet senior figures in Scottish Labour when he visits Glasgow to attend the party’s annual gala dinner later this week.

Announcing her decision to stand down in an outspoken interview with the Daily Record on Saturday, Lamont described some of her Westminster colleagues as “dinosaurs” who did not understand how the political landscape in Scotland has changed, particularly since last month’s referendum on independence.

She also accused them of trying to run the country “like a branch office of London”.

Senior sources believe that panic about possible Labour losses in next May’s general election rendered Lamont’s position untenable, after the general secretary of Scottish Labour, Ian Price, was sidelined by London without her being consulted and senior figures in Westminster began to cast doubts on her own abilities with Scottish party officials.

Former Labour first minister Jack McConnell told the Guardian: “Ed Miliband and other senior figures have some serious questions to answer about their behaviour. But more seriously, this issue of authority has to be resolved in writing and in my view be resolved before we elect a new leader.”

The position of the Scottish Labour leader was supposed to have been clarified three years ago when Lamont took over following the party’s bruising defeat in the 2011 Holyrood elections. She instituted an internal restructuring that gave more autonomy to the Scottish leader.

But McConnell argued: “Labour’s UK establishment, and in particular Scottish Labour MPs, have found it extremely difficult to come to terms with a political settlement in Scotland that changed their lives forever. [Johann’s] treatment over the past few weeks has been just unacceptable. Everyone believed the situation was resolved.”

He went on to warn: “Any attempt to cover this up, come up with a form of words that buys everybody some time, does not solve the problem.”

It is understood that Lamont was unwilling to stand for her position being further undercut by Miliband’s office after the investigation into alleged vote-rigging in Falkirk was taken out of her hands, and she was barred from condemning the bedroom tax while the Labour leader considered his position on it.

Her authority was also undermined over Labour’s submission to the Smith commission on further devolution because of senior Westminster figures’ refusal to negotiate over their position on income tax.

On Sunday, Anas Sarwar, Lamont’s deputy and now interim leader, attempted to bridge the growing rift. Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Politics programme, he distanced himself from her criticisms of the Westminster party’s attitude to Holyrood, stating: “That’s not a reflection of how I view it. I don’t see it in those terms.”

Pressed on whether he would stand as a leadership candidate, Sarwar said: “I want to think it through but I think it’s right that I do what’s my responsibility which is to keep the Labour family together, to make sure that we have a quick process to elect a new leader.” Following a meeting on Sunday, Scottish Labour’s executive committee confirmed that nominations for leader would open on 31 October with the result of the vote to be declared on 13 December.

Former Labour Scottish secretary Jim Murphy has also emerged as a strong early contender for leadership, although Labour MSP Malcolm Chisholm said electing a Westminster MP at this point would “turn a crisis into a catastrophe”. Murphy was one of the most visible Labour figures of the referendum campaign with his pro-union speaking tour, but would face the practical difficulty of finding a Holyrood seat to contest. But this is not impossible: Alex Salmond took over as leader of the SNP in 2004 while still a Westminster MP.

Gordon Brown has also been championed by some within Labour, but the former prime minister is understood not to want a frontline role. Kezia Dugdale and Jenny Marra, two of Scottish Labour’s most impressive Holyrood performers, have also been mentioned but their youth and relative inexperience could count against them.

Henry McLeish, another former Labour first minister, also rallied to Lamont’s defence – saying the crisis in Scottish Labour had been largely created at Westminster.

“The job of leading Labour in Scotland has turned into a nightmare case of hassling between Westminster and Holyrood,” he said. “The fact [is] that the leader has always got to look over her shoulder.”

Meanwhile, Salmond called on Miliband to respond directly to Lamont’s criticisms. “Labour’s meltdown in Scotland has been created by Labour in London,” he said.

“Mr Miliband should be answering questions about why Labour in Scotland is run as an extension of his Westminster office, and why he has effectively forced the resignation of a Labour leader in Scotland.”