At today’s deputy leadership hustings for the Parliamentary Labour Party Ian Murray outlined five pledges, including touring the country to listen to the public in seats Labour both won and lost; driving the ‘disgusting cancer’ of antisemitism from the party as well as the bullying and intimidation by taking responsibility for complaints and discipline; using his experience of winning what was a marginal seat in Edinburgh South to build an election-winning machine; addressing the governance of the whole UK; and being the voice of Labour staff and the Labour movement in the Shadow Cabinet.
The Labour deputy leadership candidate told MPs:
“I shouldn’t be here. People like me from the housing estate where I was born and brought up in a single parent family don’t become MPs. But I am.
And I shouldn’t be here because I wasn’t supposed to win my marginal seat. But I did, by building a coalition of support.
I’m standing for deputy leader because of my track record in beating the odds. I decided to put my name forward because I have what it takes to help Labour win again across the UK.
Yes, Scotland’s voice needs to be heard at the top of the party, but we must also send a message to every nation and region of the UK, where too many voters don’t think they are being heard. Every part of our UK matters.
Our party is at a dangerous crossroads – I’ve been warning this for years. The choice is whether we become a credible alternative government or a party of perpetual opposition. I choose the former.”
We need to stop heading for the nearest tv crew to complain and I don’t mean you discipline must come back to become a Government we have to look and behave like a credible alternative government
Richard Leonard is today reported as seeking to support a multi-option referendum on the future of Scotland.
Two years too late for Scottish labour—and he will also be bitterly opposed by the Brit Nat Ultras in the Party.
What Labours alternative offer in any referendum is not reported (presumably some form of federalism).
How it would/could be implemented is not explained.
What would be the geographic components of any federal structure is not explained.
I heard recently (on Radio 4) that England had no interest in either an “English parliament” (why would it–it has had Westminster for “a thousand years”), or regional parliaments–it seems they prefer devolved powers to already existing local authorities.
While Leonards belated conversion to the “right of self determination” for Scotland is to be welcomed, it leaves many questions unanswered, and perhaps unanswerable.
What if Scotland voted for federalism, and Boris said NO? Or England was disinterested?
If federalism was included it would inevitably be a UK-wide debate—swamping Scottish content and context.
If a serious and thought out federalism had been in the 2014 referendum, I would have voted for it, but I have now come to the conclusion it is not a feasible option for the UK due to some of the points above, but also because I don’t believe England’s political class would ever agree to watering down Westminster’s claim to be “sovereign”.
It does not seem long since there was speculation that Ian Murray might leave the Labour Party…and now he stands for deputy leader?
And he is on record as saying that the destruction of the Labour Party in Scotland was a price worth paying to save the Union?
Maybe he should be standing for deputy leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party