FORMER first minister Henry McLeish says the “deep-seated” crisis Scottish Labour faces over issues such as independence will not be fixed by a quick change in leadership.

The former Scottish Labour leader has backed Richard Leonard over critics who are demanding he leave the job as the party’s Scottish boss – saying while he may not be the best to have held the post, another leader should not be “sacrificed” in the hope of improving the situation.

McLeish also renewed a call for the party not to oppose a second independence referendum, saying it could not “deny democracy” if the SNP continues to dominate Scottish politics.

His comments come after a week in which Leonard has come under growing pressure from within his party to step down, with critics pointing to poor performance in opinion polls in Scotland.

Four of his MSPs – James Kelly, Jenny Marra, Daniel Johnson and Mark Griffin – have openly called for his departure.

A group of Labour peers and grandees – including Helen Liddell, Meta Ramsay, George Robertson and George Foulkes – also issued a statement urging him to “do what is best for the country and for the party”.

However in an interview on BBC Good Morning Scotland yesterday, McLeish used a comparison with the Scottish men’s football team to explain why Leonard should stay.

“Since 1998, the last time we qualified for a tournament, we keep changing the manager, but nothing happens on the pitch and there is no improvements, there’s no more goals, there is no inspirational play,” he said.

“If you look at the history of the Labour Party ... since 2007, I think we have had six leaders, we have had seven acting leaders and we have spent most of our time over the last 13 years actually debating leadership.

“Now it seems to me the focus should shift from the personality to the two big problems in Scotland –one the Labour Party doesn’t have a platform and secondly the messaging with that limited platform is all wrong.

“So I think it is a knee-jerk reaction. It is understandable – a slight bit of panic before 2021 and the Scottish elections, but as far as I am concerned we need a measured view.”

McLeish said that Leonard “may not be the best leader” that Scottish Labour has had, adding the post was “very, very difficult”.

He said: “It doesn’t mean to say that we have got Mr Perfect – we haven’t. He has got his qualities, he has got his drawbacks, but I just caution the party at this particular time whether it is wise to move forward months before an election knowing that history has shown us results don’t improve.

“The problems of Labour – we have a crisis, they are deep-seated, they are broad – they are not just amenable to a quick fix, change the leader and let’s get on with it. That is my concern and I think history has shown I am probably right in that assessment.”

MCLEISH said Scottish Labour had faced a “grave problem” since 2007 when the SNP began to dominate Scottish politics and had lost touch with voters and with Scotland.

He renewed a call for the party not to “deny democracy” by opposing indyref2 but to push for an alternative option of a “flexible federal framework” for the UK – although he added it may be “too late” for this.

“Unless we can say, look yes you can have a referendum, but yes we will have an alternative that we can put forward, then I think we will drift towards independence,” he said.

Leonard has ruled out taking part in a leadership contest to silence his doubters in the party.

Last week he said he had received “hundreds of messages of support” and when asked if he would consider accepting a challenge he said: “I really don’t think that’s necessary.

“There’s a group within the parliamentary group in Holyrood who have never really accepted the decision of the party membership in 2017 to elect me as the Scottish Labour Party leader.”

Among those backing Leonard was train drivers’ union Aslef, which issued a statement to support him after what it called an “attempted palace putsch by disaffected Blairites”.

Kevin Lindsay, Aslef organiser in Scotland, said Leonard’s leadership was not being helped by the “whingers and the moaners who snipe from the sidelines instead of trying to help rebuild the party”.

He added: “We are today calling for the bampots and the naysayers to shut up and let Richard do what he was elected to do – rebuild Labour, ready for the elections at Holyrood next year so we can build a Scotland that works for everyone.”

LEONARD was not the only opposition leader facing criticism last week, with the Scottish Conservatives’ Douglas Ross becoming embroiled in a row with the National Farmers Union of Scotland (NFUS).

NFUS policy director Jonnie Hall accused the Scottish Tory leader of misrepresenting him, by claiming he had agreed that Westminster had never passed legislation lowering the UK’s food standards.

Hall said the remarks had left him “fuming”, as the union had concerns about the UK Government’s rejection of an amendment to the Trade Bill which would have required various types of imports in the future to meet or exceed current UK food-safety standards.

SNP MP Dave Doogan called for Ross to apologise for the remarks, saying: “This is not just embarrassing for the Scottish Tory leader, it is yet another sign of the Tories’ sheer contempt for Scotland’s vital agriculture sector.”

It’s the second major controversy Ross has faced in only his first month of leadership.

Last month the MP apologised after sparking outrage by missing a VJ Day event in his Moray constituency to work as a linesman at a football match.

In an interview in The Times yesterday, Ross said he did not intend to give up his refereeing duties but has scaled back so that people don’t think it “dominates too much of my time”.

He denied that the unpopular perception of Boris Johnson in Scotland will dent the Conservatives north of the Border.

“Both of us are passionate about defending Scotland’s place in the UK, but he knows that we are also a distinct party from the UK Conservative Party, and there will be times when we disagree,” Ross added.

Jack Sheldon, a politics researcher at the University of Cambridge, whose work has examined the “assertive Unionism” approach being taken by the Conservatives, said Ross will face a challenge over how far he wants to align with the party at Westminster.

He said: “On one hand, a major objective for Scottish Conservatives is to try and push the issue of the Union up the agenda of Boris Johnson’s government.

“So they would be trying to push for Boris Johnson to speak more about the Union and defending the Union and for the Government to do more things that are specifically pro-Union.

“But I think that is actually a bit of a gamble. The big problem for Unionists in Scotland is that since 2014 – and especially since Johnson became Prime Minister – a certain amount of voters who were previously pro-Union now look like supporting independence.

“Most of those voters are people that are not supporters of Boris Johnson’s government, who disapprove of the way Boris Johnson has handled coronavirus, and perhaps disapprove of Brexit and the overall way he has led the country.

“If Douglas Ross is going to be successful, he has got to do what Ruth Davidson did to some extent and carve out a position where the Scottish Conservatives are seen as being a separate entity from the Conservative Government at Westminster, and probably with a slightly more centrist position on quite a lot of issues.”