THE knives are out for Richard Leonard after the hapless Scottish Labour leader led his party to what may be their worst ever result.
The party slumped to fifth place, losing two MEPs, and taking just 9.3% of the vote, down nearly 17 points on the election in 2014.
David Martin, who's been Scottish Labour's man in the European Parliament for the last 35 years, said the result “should be a wake up call” for the leadership.
Martin said the party had been “trying to ride two horses”.
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He added: "Labour's message from the outset should have been we are the party which wants to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom and keep the UK in Europe, and reform both."
In a fiercely worded column, Labour MPs Ian Murray and Martin Whitfield, said the result was in part down to Leonard’s enthusiasm to be manager of Jeremy Corbyn’s Scottish branch office.
Writing in the Scotsman, the two men said the people of Scotland had “delivered an utterly damning verdict” on the “ambiguity” being offered by Labour.
“The blame for the worst result in Scottish Labour’s history lies squarely with our party’s leadership.”
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They added: “It is official Labour Party policy to support a People’s Vote as a way out of this catastrophic mess, yet Jeremy Corbyn snubbed our membership and refused to embrace it. As a result he personally handed victory to Nigel Farage. “
The two MPs said Scottish Labour “could have chosen very different path.”
They wrote: “We are (or should be) an autonomous party – a hard-fought victory achieved by Kezia Dugdale delivering immediate results under her leadership in the 2017 General Election.
“The Labour Party is the only party that stands for what the majority of Scots want – Scotland in both the UK and the EU. That’s how you fight the nationalists, whether they be Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson or Nicola Sturgeon.
“And yet in this European campaign we completely failed to capitalise on this clear advantage, with a disastrous message that meekly echoed the UK Labour campaign, even putting Jeremy’s face on our leaflet to voters.
“This was Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Leonard’s manifesto, their message, their decision to ignore the membership and what voters were saying to us. It was their election campaign and their mess.
“They stuck their heads in the Brexit sand because they can’t lead.”
With rumours that Labour might be willing to enter some form of supply and confidence deal with the SNP after a General Election, Murray said Leonard must stand up to Corbyn and tell him “in no uncertain terms: Labour firmly opposes an unwanted second independence referendum and we will never, ever, deal with the SNP on this.”
“We must also reassert our autonomy and ditch the debilitating ‘branch office’ status – that includes taking control of disciplinary procedures, running distinct Scottish campaigns, and listening to what our members are telling us.”
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