Starmer has ‘severely impaired’ Scottish Labour, says former leader

Decisions by the UK Government have “severely impaired” Scottish Labour ahead of next year’s election, a former leader has said.

The Prime Minister has been regularly criticised for unpopular decisions taken in the first months of his tenure in office, including on winter fuel payments for pensioners, not compensating the Waspi women and benefit cuts.

In less than a year, Scottish Labour has gone from winning the UK election and reducing the SNP to just nine MPs, to dropping to second in the polls ahead of next year’s Holyrood vote, with some of the most recent suggesting the party could drop below the surging Reform UK.

On Friday, former leader Richard Leonard accused the Prime Minister of hampering Scottish Labour’s efforts in next year’s election.

“I’ll be honest with you, decisions being taken by Keir Starmer have severely impaired Scottish Labour’s ability to get across its message about how we want social justice, how we want to make changes to the economy and so on,” he told BBC Radio Scotland.

“So, life has been made a lot more difficult for the current Scottish Labour leadership, I think.”

Mr Leonard – a Central Scotland MSP who has said he will not seek re-election – served as the Scottish Labour leader between 2017 and 2021, when he was succeeded by current leader Anas Sarwar.

The former leader refused to criticise his successor, instead saying he has confidence in the party’s leadership in Scotland.

“I have to say that lots of people gave running commentaries on my leadership and I’m not prepared to enter into a running commentary on Anas’s leadership,” he said.

“But I’m quite sure that with a year to go, there is still a good prospect of Labour clawing back the gap which has opened up in the polls, I think, with the right policies.”

Asked if he had faith in Mr Sarwar and his team, Mr Leonard added: “Oh yes, of course I do.”