KEZIA Dugdale may not have the confidence to continue as leader if she does not receive backing today for her proposals to give more autonomy to Scottish Labour, The National was told yesterday – hours after Ian Murray said if the proposal was not approved the party could shut down in Scotland.
The Scottish Labour leader faces the biggest battle of her political career with her plans drawn up to fight off “the branch office tag” facing a knife-edge vote at the Liverpool conference. Jeremy Corbyn’s allies including the trade union Unite are opposed to a key part of her package which gives her the power to appoint herself or a frontbench colleague onto the National Executive Committee (NEC) as its Scottish representative.
They believe the move is undemocratic by not allowing members to vote and are concerned it would also undermine the UK leader’s influence.
Today’s vote comes days after Dugdale claimed Corbyn could not unite Labour or win a General Election minutes after he was re-elected as UK leader. His mandate enhanced by a 62-38 win over Owen Smith, Corbyn told Labour members in Liverpool: “I have no doubt that this party can win the next general election.”
But almost immediately Dugdale contradicted him in an interview with BBC News. Asked about a recent newspaper article in which she wrote: “I don’t think Jeremy can unite our party and lead us into government”, the Scottish Labour leader replied: “I’m not changing that view. It’s very clear. It’s written down.”
She then tried to reverse her position, telling BBC Scotland that “of course” a party led by Corbyn can win an election.
One insider last night questioned whether she could continue if her proposals did not go through today.
Asked if she should stand down in that scenario, they said: “I suppose if these proposals don’t go through it will really undermine her authority.”
The source added: “She has been insistent she should be given the power to appoint the Scottish NEC rep. It’s also to do with the fact she made such a mess of the post election interview, when Jeremy was re-elected. Together with the car crash interview following Corbyn’s re-election, I wonder if she feels confident enough to stay on.”
Dugdale’s ally Ian Murray warned last night that if her proposals weren’t approved it would lead to the party north of the Border shutting down.
The former Shadow Scottish Secretary added it was “utterly critical” that reforms are backed on the conference floor. At a conference fringe meeting, he said the “branch office” tag that the party has in Scotland had “completely destroyed” it.
“If certain people on the National Executive Committee run a campaign to vote these rules down tomorrow they are in danger of not just not helping the Scottish Labour party, they are in danger of shutting the Scottish Labour party down,” he said.
A fresh attempt by Corbyn’s allies to stop the party’s Scottish and Welsh leaders or their representatives sitting on the NEC was rejected when it met yesterday. It followed an address by Welsh leader Carwyn Jones urging the committee not to let Wales down.
He is said to have told NEC members that the measures were needed to counter those claims as he urged them not to “water down” the package of reforms.
The NEC knocked back the bid to delay the changes without a vote, with members being told the issue had been backed twice at previous meetings.
Murray said Labour lost in 2015 because David Cameron set Scottish nationalism against English nationalism. “That’s what all the analysis has told us,” he said. “The reason that a lot of members of the Labour party and Labour supporters don’t know that analysis is because the party has been refusing to release it.”
Dugdale told BBC Scotland: “We have been working on these proposals for a long time. It is the right thing for Scotland and the right thing for the whole party.
“The proposals are very clear that the position on the NEC is for the leader of the Scottish and Welsh parties to either take themselves or to nominate, just as Jeremy Corbyn nominates the people that sit on the shadow cabinet that sit in the NEC.”
Johanna Baxter, whose term on the NEC will come to an end at the close of the party conference after she failed to be re-elected on to the ruling body, urged delegates to back the proposed rule changes as she introduced Dugdale ahead of her speech.
A senior Labour source said: “This single, unnamed individual could not possibly be more wrong. Kezia Dugdale won 72% of the vote in last year’s leadership election – a greater mandate than Jeremy Corbyn won this week.
“Kezia has the backing of the Scottish Executive Committee and the National Executive Committee and Jeremy Corbyn in the proposals for greater autonomy – something previous Labour leaders have been fighting for for years.
“Scottish Labour is absolutely united in its task of holding the SNP and Tory governments to account under Kezia’s strong and determined leadership.”
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