Richard Leonard team sends email responding to 'latest Jackie Baillie pish' as Labour civil war turns nasty

It's been an explosive day for Scottish Labour. At one point Richard Leonard’s press officer accused Jackie Baillie of talking “pish”.

It all started with a recording, obtained by the Sun, where Rowley can be heard speaking candidly to an American student while standing in queue for an event at Labour party conference in Brighton.

READ MORE: Scottish Labour leader candidates reject Dugdale's call for second Brexit referendum

The gaffe-prone Fifer tells his new acquaintance, “although I’m neutral in the leadership I also believe that Richard Leonard has everything that we need to win in 2021. I really do.”

On timing, he says the left-wing of the party were caught off-guard by Dugdale’s surprise resignation: “We didn’t expect this to happen, and we certainly weren’t putting any pressure on it.”

He later adds: “So we didn’t expect it to happen now. But you know, any private discussions we were having, we were very clear that [inaudible] we didn’t think it would happen before 2021.

“We, privately, we didn’t believe Kezia would be there in 2021. But not right now. It came as a surprise to us.”

Rowley says he believes Leonard has a “solid grounding in the Labour party”.

The interim leader then goes on to say he believes Leonard’s rival, Anas Sarwar, if elected, would last “maybe four years or whatever.”

In a furious statement sent to press, Baillie, a prominent Sarwar supporter,  said Leonard needed to clarify if he had played any role in the plot against Dugdale.

“Alex Rowley’s hypocrisy is incredibly disappointing. But what is most concerning is the revelations about a plot against Kezia Dugdale,” she said.

“Kez was elected with a huge majority and it will infuriate members to learn that some MSPs were working behind the scenes to undermine her and replace her with Richard Leonard.

“Richard must urgently answer questions about his role in this plot.

“This behaviour by the party establishment is a complete betrayal of the membership and every value we hold dear."

In response to a request for comment from the Telegraph, Leonard’s press officer, Stephen Low sent an email with the subject “coment [sic] on latest jackie baillie pish”.

“If there were any attempts to undermine Kezia - they did not involve Richard and he knew nothing of them," he insisted.

“Any statements that he did are completely false.”

Asked about the row on the BBC’s Five Live, Dugdale said: "I'm sure lots of people will say, wow, that speaks to a lot of internal problems in the Labour party. They'd be right."

As the row exploded, Jeremy Corbyn was onstage in Brighton talking about how Labour had never been more united and was now the "party of unity".

Commenting, the SNP MSP Sandra White said: “With the Labour leadership campaign barely out of the starting blocks both factions are fighting like cats in a sack – it’s astonishing.

“It’s hard to imagine how Richard Leonard could command the respect of the party when senior MSPs are accusing him of a ‘complete betrayal’ of Labour values.

“And Alex Rowley’s authority as interim leader is now completely undermined.

“Once again, the bitter divisions within Labour are never far from the surface.

“As we’ve seen in recent days, Labour cannot be trusted on basic matters such as protecting Scotland’s single market membership – it is clear that they are more interested in settling old scores than focussing on the real issues facing the country.”

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: “Alex was having what he believed to be a private conversation with a student and a political activist. He has not and will not publicly back a candidate. “He has no intention of relinquishing his role as interim leader of the Labour Party in Scotland until after the current leadership contest is over.”

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Full transcript

Female Scottish voice A: He’s got to stay neutral cos he’s interim leader. So, it’s better to just be neutral.

American male voice B: So that incident in the house the other day. About the..eh..

A: First Ministers Questions?

B: Yeah.A: Yeah. It’s a mixed bag. I mean, interesting. I take it you saw it and you saw the reaction and the -?

B: Yeah. Was it a total surprise?A: Yeah. It was an unintended consequence of a perfectly reasonable question about – B: It sounded like a very well-delivered line of attack, yeah, it was – A: Well, there was three questions, about poverty, and then what in order to address poverty we need to act, we need to put tax up – there’s a logic to that argument…what can you do if people choose to step in and hijack the argument for – that’s just what happened – that doesn’t take away from, he never got an answer to his question, er but B: That’s what personality politics do.

A: Yeah yeah. Of course. Alex doesn’t really do personality politics, he prefers to stick to the issues.

Alex Rowley: So what are you studying in Glasgow then?

B: Politics and theatre.

Rowley: Ah, excellent.

B: For a particular major in…I want to study political theatre – the theatre of elections. Yeah, Bit richer in the UK than the states.. parliament allows for a lot more of that than congress does.

A: And the UK parliament, the Scottish parliament, offer different opportunities there, because in the Scottish Parliament you have six-minute speeches, five o clock finishes – it’s much more routine in a way. There’s the UK parliament – there’s more scope for theatrical than, and abuse of that opportunity.

B: Yeah. It’s quite surprising. I’m doing a programme next semester, a semester-long internship in the House of Commons. I originally wanted to do it in the Scottish Parliament. Funnily enough it’s more expensive in the Scottish Parliament than the House of Commons.

Rowley: But if you want to come through to the Scottish parliament just get in touch [inaudible], you’d be very welcome. Have you got a card for him?

A: I don’t have any cards with me but -Rowley: Just go on the email.

A: It’s alex.rowley.msp@parliament.scot – just Google him. You’ll find him. A pleasure.

B: Thank you very much. So why, if I may ask, and feel free to tell me to stop pestering you, why did you choose not to stand for the leadership?

Rowley: I never really – [to other person] hiya – I never really wanted that. I quite enjoyed the [inaudible] job. I’ve been enjoying being in like the party, trying to rebuild the party, we’ve got a job of work to be done in Scotland. I also, although I’m neutral in the leadership I also believe that Richard Leonard has everything that we need to win in 2021. I really do. So when, to our surprise, the job became vacant, it just seemed to me that from a left perspective the person that was most suited to do that job would be Richard Leonard.

B: Really? OK. The impression that the newspapers gave at the time was that he was sort of the fallback candidate once you and Mr, um, name I’m blanking on – Rowley: Neil Findlay.

B: Neil Findlay – you both thought that you – Rowley: No, no – for some time now I’ve thought he (Richard Leonard) was the best candidate. And most people within the left in Scotland I think thought likewise. So it’s been our view – [inaudible] – for some time. We didn’t expect this to happen, and we certainly weren’t putting any pressure on it.

B: In the book for the Labour Party, the Labour conference programme – it still lists in conversation with Kezia Dugdale, leader of the Scottish Labour party in the slot when they’re now having hustings.

Rowley: Yeah. So we didn’t expect it to happen now. But you know, any private discussions we were having, we were very clear that [inaudible] we didn’t think it would happen before 2021. We, privately, we didn’t believe Kezia would be there in 2021. But not right now. It came as a surprise to us. So our view was that Richard was the best person and therefore we should go with that plan. But he has now to get elected of course.

B: Well, I joined up so as to vote for him. Why Richard Leonard? What do you think makes him qualified?

Rowley: I think, erm, I think he’s, his solid grounding in the Labour party. His views have never changed over many years in terms of coming from the left. He agrees that we need to develop an industrial strategy – we need a vision for Scotland that sets out the jobs and investment and so, so where he comes from, and I think he’s got the intellectual [inaudible] to take that forward. If Anas was to win you would have a …[inaudible].. last maybe four years or whatever. Richard will demonstrate over time, just like Jeremy has, that he has got the intellectual capacity to be the leader.