List of scottish labour party leaders. Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party 2020, Acting Leader of Scottish Labour 2014, 2017, 2021, Chief Whip of the Scottish Labour Party 20142016, The first permanent wheelchair user elected to the Scottish Parliament, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, 20172021, Henderson, Ailsa; Johns, Rob; Larner, Jac; and Carman, Chris (2020), ", This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 10:39. The success was short-lived, however, and at the 2019 general election, Labour lost all new seats gained two years earlier, and again were left with Edinburgh South as their only Scottish seat in the House of Commons. [53], At the 2010 general election on 6 May 2010, contrary to polls preceding the election, Labour consolidated their vote in Scotland, losing no seats (despite losing 91 seats across the rest of Britain) and regained Glasgow East from the SNP. 2023 BBC. View Labour held marginal seats vulnerable at the next Scottish Parliament election. Full list of teacher strike dates for March 2023 in England, Wales and Scotland 01 March, 2023 If teachers are on strike today, and how schools will be affected by walkouts 01 March, 2023 When do . Matt is also a Scottish Labour activist, and member of Unite. The most recent incumbent ran for the leadership against Ken Macintosh at a particularly grim moment for the party, and won handily. [12] The party has declined to reveal its membership figures since 2008, and did not publish the number of votes cast in the leadership elections of 2011 or 2014, only percentages. From their peak of holding 56 of the 129 seats at the first Scottish parliament election in 1999, the Party has lost seats at each Holyrood election, returning 22 MSPs at the 2021 election. [107] In Edinburgh, they suspended two councillors for refusing to vote for the deal which gave Conservatives positions within the council. [32], At the start of the campaign for the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, Labour were behind the SNP in most of the opinion polls. He tendered his resignation to the Queen. McLeish resigned later that year amid a scandal involving allegations that he sub-let part of his tax-subsidised Westminster constituency office without it having been registered in the register of interests kept in the Parliamentary office, an affair which the press called Officegate. But she was to resign after the referendum with an explosive statement accusing UK Labour HQ of treating the party in Scotland as a "branch office" and calling for more autonomy. She called for reform and vowed to "reconnect Scottish Labour with its electorate", and helped set up the cross-party Calman Commission to review devolution. Party leader - Nicola Sturgeon Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party - 31 MSPs Party leader - Douglas Ross Scottish Labour - 22 MSPs Party leader - Anas Sarwar Scottish Green Party - 7 MSPs Party leaders - Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater Scottish Liberal Democrats - 4 MSPs Party leader - Alex Cole-Hamilton No Party Affiliation - 1 MSP Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Labour Party Rule Book 2019 [pdf]: includes leadership election rules and procedures for selecting candidates. Leader of Barking and Dagenham council Darren Rodwell has been selected as the next Labour candidate for Barking. Job specializations: Restaurant/Food Service. The 37-year-old was the Glasgow Central MP from 2010 to 2015 and was firmly in the Gordon Brown camp of New Labour. Dugdale then endured watching her party get pushed to third place in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election to Ruth Davidson's resurgent Conservatives. [28] Though McLeish could not have personally benefited financially from the oversight, he undertook to repay the 36,000 rental income, and resigned to allow Scottish Labour a clean break to prepare for the 2003 Scottish Parliament election. With the. It's what a leader of the opposition is meant to say. [22] In 1899, the Scottish Trades Union Congress organised the Scottish Workers' Representation Committee, which merged into the Labour Party in 1909, greatly increasing its presence in Scotland. 30 Aug 2017. Hospitals inquiry: What is being investigated? Leadership | AFL-CIO History has given us a plethora of political leaders, both good and bad, who have dedicated their lives to the betterment of their countries and the people living in the country. Council Leader Cllr Jenny Laing. [70] Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) was the only MP re-elected. Mr Sarwar took an active role in the pro-Union campaign leading up to the 2014 independence referendum, touring Scotland in a bus with No activists. Former MSP for Glasgow Region Placeholder. [21], From the formation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, it had members in Scotland, but unlike in England and Wales, it made no pact with the Liberal Party and so initially struggled to make an impact. "[39] Despite this lack of backing, Alexander once again reiterated her commitment to a referendum during First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament. All rights reserved. She. Job in Harefield Ward - England - UK , UB9 6HJ. [14] Other reports in the media at around this time quoted figures of "as low as 8,000" (the Evening Times)[15] and "less than 10,000" (New Statesman). Elected to the position unopposed, Wendy Alexander was the first to serve the party as leader of the opposition after it had spent eight years in coalition with the Lib Dems. Barking. He was stung by a couple of campaign blunders, including trying to hide from protesters in a Subway shop in Glasgow and a bizarre dispute with Salmond over which leader ran away from the other when they visited the same supermarket in Ardrossan. [74][75] On 1 November 2015, Scottish Labour Party delegates backed a vote to scrap the UK's Trident nuclear missile system. He also supported the suffragist revolt organized by activist Emmeline Pankhurst. Take a look at Scottish Labours people. As has often been the case for Scottish Labour in the last decade, the party faced a leadership election in 2017 after Kezia Dugdale quit and Mr Sarwar was pitted against Richard Leonard. Humza Yousaf's Aug 21 recovery plan was 'more about spin than substance'. Alex Rowley Julie MacDougall Craig Miller Chris Kane Ryan Smart Ewan Dillon North East Scotland Michael Marra Mercedes Villalba Barry Black Lynn Thomson Richard McCready Georgia Strachan Kaamal Bola Heather Herbert Owen Wright South Scotland Colin Smyth Carol Mochan Martin Whitfield Claudia Beamish Kevin McGregor West Scotland Jackie. She had already been deputy leader and leader at Holyrood during MPJim Murphy's tenure, which ended with Labour losing all of its Scottish seats at Westminster bar one. In the late 1980s and 1990s it and its representatives participated in the Scottish Constitutional Convention with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Scottish Greens, trades unions and churches, and also campaigned for a "Yes-Yes" vote in the 1997 referendum. To find out more about these cookies, see our, Scottish Labours Local Government Manifesto. 2. [22] The Labour Party campaigned for the creation of a devolved Scottish Parliament as part of its wider policy of a devolved United Kingdom. He later headed the British Overseas Airways Corporation, too. The majority of Brits do not think Nicola Sturgeon was a force for good in Scottish politics, new polling suggests. [99] They also recorded their worst performance on both the Constituency and List vote in terms of vote share, however it was better than had been predicted by many polls at the start of Sarwar's tenure as leader, some of which had predicted Labour to potentially fall to fourth place behind the Scottish Greens. [30], The coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats was narrowly re-elected at the Scottish Parliament election, with Labour losing seven seats and the Liberal Democrats gaining one. Anas Sarwar elected as new leader of Scottish Labour Party Sienna Rodgers Anas Sarwar a Labour MSP for Glasgow ex-MP and former deputy leader has been elected today to succeed Richard Leonard as the new leader of Scottish Labour Party. [77], In the 2017 local elections, Labour's share of first preference votes fell from 31.4% to 20.2%, while it lost over 130 seats. On 15 August 2007, McConnell announced his intention to resign as Scottish Labour leader. In 1899 the Scottish Trades Union Congress organised the Scottish Workers Representation Committee which merged into the Labour Party in 1909 greatly increasing its presence in Scotland. A Polish immigrant to the United States, David Dubinsky was a union leader by the age of 15. Delivering her victory speech, Lamont said: "I want to change Scotland, but the only way we can change Scotland is by changing the Scottish Labour Party. After the death of Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish - Dewar's right-hand man in helping secure devolution - defeated McConnell to become Scottish Labour leader and Scotland's First Minister. Despite the positive result for the party, Labour remained in third place in Scotland, behind the Conservatives on 29%, and the SNP on 37%. Right IconThis ranking is based on an algorithm that combines various factors, including the votes of our users and search trends on the internet. Posted: Wednesday, March 1, 2023. "[56], In the 2012 Scottish local elections, Labour were outpolled by the SNP. Members, MSPs, MPs and affiliated groups will now need to choose their ninth leader since Holyrood opened for business in 1999. Since his death, Wallace has been viewed as an iconic figure whose story of bravery and valor has inspired several works of art, including the Academy Award-winning film Braveheart. This was the first time the party had not dominated in Scotland since the Conservative Party landslide in 1959. And then there was this moment from aleaders' debate. Labour suggested a 5% rise in line with most other local authorities, and the Conservatives plans lay in the middle with a 6% increase. The 2021 Scottish Parliament election saw Labour decline even further, achieving their lowest number of seats in Holyrood since devolution in 1999; with 22 MSPs returned to the Scottish Parliament. Former MSP for South Scotland (Region) Colin Beattie. Over the years, he established what is now the Standard Chartered Bank. On 17 December 2011, Johann Lamont MSP was elected as leader and Anas Sarwar MP was elected as her deputy. Jackson Carlaw is a Scottish politician best known for his association with the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party where he served as the leader from February to July 2020. He worked as a code breaker during the war years. Scottish Labour (Scottish Gaelic: Prtaidh Lbarach na h-Alba, Scots: Scots Labour Pairty; officially the Scottish Labour Party) is a social democratic political party in Scotland. Dewar also campaigned vigorously for a Yes-Yes vote to win a Scottish Parliament in the 1997 referendum. [35][36] Labour did take the most votes in the local elections on the same day but lost seats due to the introduction of proportional representation for local council elections. Send a Message. The three least popular politicians were Boris Johnson, on a -38 approval rating, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on -43, and Alba leader Alex Salmond on -57. Coming in at the tail end of 2014 and gone by the next summer, Jim Murphy's six-month tenure is the shortest on record against several contenders. Proficient in languages such as Hindi and Urdu, he later explored places such as the modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan, and penned the autobiography Travels into Bokhara. [81] Jackie Baillie took over as acting leader until the conclusion of the leadership election. Apart from translating the Bible into Chinese, he also enriched Anglo-Chinese literature with his dictionaries and books on Chinese grammar. [26][27] Labour's dominance of Scotland's Westminster seats continued in the 2001 general election, with a small loss of votes but no losses of seats. The party's policies usually promote social democracy and democratic socialism. Members, MSPs, MPs and affiliated groups will now need to choose their ninth leader since Holyrood opened for business in 1999. This resulted in incumbent Scottish secretary Jim Murphy stating that the result provided an impetus for Scottish Labour to attempt to become "the biggest party in Holyrood" in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections.[54]. Take a look at Scottish Labour's people. Kate Forbes, the finance secretary and one of the candidates, last night said: "I fully believe in democracy and. The boundaries in Scotland were redrawn to reduce the number of Westminster constituencies in Scotland from 72 to 59. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Covid origin likely China lab incident - FBI chief, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. The motion was supported by an overwhelming majority, in which both party members and unions voted 70% in favor of the motion. [67][68] He also said that he planned to defeat the SNP in 2016, and would use the increased powers being devolved to Holyrood to end poverty and inequality. Sheraised her opponent's ire by describing nationalism as a "virus". Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the British Labour Party, gave a speech on his party's economic plans at the City of London's financial centre on Monday. Labour lost 40 seats in Scotland and were reduced to a solitary MP north of the border (and it wasn't Jim Murphy). In 2008, Scottish Labour membership was reported as 17,000, down from a peak of approximately 30,000 in the run-up to the 1997 general election. His dad, Mohammad Sarwar, was the UK's first ever Muslim MP and held the Glasgow Central seat for Labour between 1997 and 2010 - until his son Anas succeeded him. He also earned the knighthood for his explorations. McLeish's time as First Ministerwas embroiled in scandal after it emerged he received 36,000 from sub-letting his constituency office in Fife during his time as an MP. Asked whether "in principle" there should be a referendum on independence, 30% agreed and 57% disagreed. Labour got its lowest percentage of the vote in Scotland in 98 years with 23% and fell into 3rd place, a position it last occupied in Scotland in 1910, behind the Conservatives. Scottish Labour. Willie Rennie Nicola Sturgeon Douglas Ross Anas Sarwar Patrick Harvie and co-leader Lorna Slater Credit. Hornsey and Wood Green members voted strongly for the following emergency motion: Selection of Candidates Find out more about Anas now. Labour Party website. Follow. Kirsten Oswald - East Renfrewshire. He was deputy head of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) from 1919 to 1942. Anas Sarwar wins Scottish Labour leadership race, 'Leonard's Labour leadership just wasn't working', MSP Sarwar to stand in Scottish Labour contest, Sarwar relinquishes shares in family firm, Lennon and Sarwar clash on indyref2 mandate. List of leaders since 1999 Donald Dewar 19992000 1st First Minister of Scotland died in office Henry McLeish 20002001 2nd First Minister of Scotland resigned Jack McConnell 20012007 3rd First Minister of Scotland lost Scottish Parliament election. Human error to blame for deadly train crash, says Greek PM, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. Hope is returning to Scotland, with Anas Sarwar paving the way for Scottish Labour to lead the nation past nationalist politics, into a new era full of promise for Scotland. He also sought to boost the competitiveness of Scottish industry. The party has been criticised for fielding a number of candidates affiliated with the Orange Order in local elections. [60] The group was dismissed by the Scottish Labour leadership as lacking "real support" from within the party. The SNP were the largest group just four seats short of an overall majority. In the early years, the Scottish Council had little power, and its conference could only consider motions on Scottish matters until 1972. [98] At the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, Labour lost a further two seats including the constituency seat of East Lothian, bringing their number of MSPs to 22, an all time low. The office of Leader of the Scottish Labour Party was established. The party also only won 3 constituency seats: holding onto the Dumbarton and East Lothian constituencies and gaining the Edinburgh Southern constituency from the SNP, whilst losing eleven of its 2011 constituencies to the SNP and two to the Conservatives. [90] However, he said he would continue as leader and carry out a listening exercise. Party leader - Douglas Ross Scottish Labour 22 MSPs Party leader - Anas Sarwar Scottish Green Party 7 MSPs Party leaders - Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater Scottish Liberal Democrats 4 MSPs Party leader - Alex Cole-Hamilton No Party Affiliation 1 MSP Presiding Officer -. Scotgov took eye off the ball on NHS, says ScotLab Anas Sarwar. He said speculation about his leadership had become a distraction, just four. In the Panelbase poll for the Sunday. The party currently holds one[7] of 59 Scottish seats in the UK House of Commons, with Ian Murray having represented Edinburgh South continuously since 2010. Being the first woman to serve in these positions, Nicola Sturgeon is seen as a majorinspiration to women across Scotland. In her speech after being elected deputy leader, Kezia Dugdale said that the party's "focus has to be on the future a Scottish Labour party that's fighting fit and fighting for our future". Success is not a concept Scottish Labour have been familiar with over the past 15 years. [8] At the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, the party lost 13 of its 37 seats, becoming the third-largest party after being surpassed by the Scottish Conservatives. Mr Sarwar will be the first non-white leader of a major political party in the UK and has spoken in the past about the racism he has experienced as a politician. The Scottish Labour Party will place third-party cookies on your computer to help us make this website better. [76], In the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, Labour lost a third of its seats, dropping from 37 to 24. The 2020 Labour Party leadership election was triggered after Jeremy Corbyn announced his intention to resign as the leader of the Labour Party following the partys defeat at the 2019 general electionIt was won by Keir Starmer who received 562 per cent of the vote on the first roundIt was held alongside the 2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election. Dugdale won the 2015 leadership election on 15 August 2015, beating Ken Macintosh. Head Chef. He also commanded Scotland's defence against English attacks for some time. On election day itself, the party managed to improve on its 2015 result and received 27% of the Scottish vote in a surprisingly good night for the party nationwide, and picked up 6 seats from the SNP in traditionally Labour areas such as Coatbridge, Glasgow, Kirkcaldy, and Rutherglen, bringing its Scottish number of seats to 7. First time the party, and member of Unite literature with his dictionaries books... 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