SCOTTISH Labour looks set for a snap contest to find its new leader ahead of the Holyrood election this spring, party sources have told The National.
Richard Leonard’s deputy Jackie Baillie has been named interim leader and there was speculation she may head the party into the poll, due to take place in May, with the leadership race deferred until after the election.
The 2017 contest in which Leonard beat Anas Sarwar lasted three months and saw bitter rows break out between different sides of the party.
However, insiders dismissed the contest being deferred with one suggesting figures on the left of the party, such as the MSP Neil Findlay, would not be keen to head into an election with Baillie at the helm without a contest.
“Some people might say Jackie should stay on as interim until after the election, but I think that’s unlikely,” they told The National.
“I suspect people like Neil Findlay wouldn’t accept Jackie heading the election campaign. I think there will be a full contest. There must be a way of making it shorter? I’ve always thought they were unnecessarily long.”
A second party insider added: “Surely, there will have to be a contest before the election. There would just have to be.”
Anas Sarwar, the centrist MSP who was recently made Scottish Labour’s constitution spokesman, but who lost to Leonard in the last leadership election, is likely to be an early favourite for the post. It is possible that Baillie too might go for the top job.
“I don’t think Jackie will go for it,” one source told us.
Former leader and Prime Minister Gordon Brown was among the figures being discussed last night as potential candidates, though former First Minister Jack McConnell dismissed the suggestion this morning, saying he believed the party should look to the future for a new leader.
Other contenders are expected to come from the left of the party, including health spokeswoman Monica Lennon who has won cross party plaudits for her work on period poverty.
Under her bill, which received royal assent this week, Scotland became the first country in the world to introduce free universal access to period products.
READ MORE: Here are five of Richard Leonard's worst gaffes as he quits as Labour leader
Further candidates could include Daniel Johnson – one of the Labour MSPs – who tried to force Leonard to go in September, and former deputy party leader Alex Rowley.
The party’s stance on a second referendum is likely to be a key issue for debate in a forthcoming election contest.
Lennon and Rowley support a more open approach to a second independence referendum.
After the 2019 General Election – in which Scottish Labour was left with a single MP – Lennon said the Scottish Parliament should be allowed to decide if there should be a new vote on independence – though she stated that she still did not believe independence was the right option.
Lennon said: “People in Scotland have voted in very large numbers for the SNP, including many Labour voters.
“As expected, Nicola Sturgeon is presenting that as an endorsement of her party and will now ask the UK Government to permit a second referendum on independence.
“If Boris Johnson isn’t prepared to grant this request, he should allow the Scottish Parliament to decide.”
In January last year Rowley said Scottish Labour should support “the sovereign right of the Scottish people” to choose the country’s future, though he said a referendum should only take place if two-thirds of MSPs support it.
Sarwar and Johnson are on the side of the party implacably opposed to a second independence referendum.
Leonard’s successor will be the fifth Scottish Labour leader since the 2014 independence referendum and the tenth since devolution in 1999.
The previous leaders are Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish, Jack McConnell, Wendy Alexander, Iain Gray, Johann Lamont, Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale.
Party sources also told The Guardian that Baillie expects to launch an immediate and fast-tracked leadership election to guarantee Leonard’s successor is in post well before the May 6 Holyrood election.
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