Another leadership contest?
- 15 Aug 07, 01:24 PM
So Jack McConnell is off. The outgoing Scottish Labour leader has been expected to go sometime since the party's bruising encounter at the election a couple of months ago. So as Labour north of the border comes to terms with the SNP being in charge they find themselves looking for a new boss in Edinburgh.
Whoever it is, they have a tough brief. The SNP are riding high in the polls, and Alex Salmond is working hard to push forward his long term agenda of moving the country towards a referendum on independence.
But will there be a fight for the job? Don't put money on a contest. It's not certain, but the most likely outcome is that Wendy Alexander - yes, the sister of a certain Douglas Alexander, one of Gordon Brown's staunchest cabinet allies - will become the Scottish Labour leader unopposed.
Does it matter outside Scotland? Yes, if only for this reason. One of the things that could hold Gordon Brown back from calling an autumn election is Labour's unpopularity in his home country at the moment. If the polls in Scotland don't shift, going for a ballot in a few months could mean him presiding over the loss of dozens of seats in his own back yard.
The opposition parties delighted in embarrassing Gordon Brown when the Lib Dems pulled off a victory in Labour's Dunfermline stronghold, right near his constituency, not so long ago. Losing a good number of seats to the SNP at a general election would be a much bigger political humiliation.
