Johann Lamont is to stand down as leader of the Scottish Labour party, after describing some of her Westminster colleagues as dinosaurs who do not understand the politics they are facing since the referendum.
Lamont accused colleagues of trying to run Scotland “like a branch office of London”, an accusation backed by the former Labour first minister Henry McLeish who claimed the Westminster party did not have a clue about “the realities of Scottish politics” and faced a problem of “historic, epic proportions” that could cost it the next general election.
It is understood that Lamont was unhappy that the general secretary of Scottish Labour, Ian Price, was to be removed from office without her being consulted.
In an interview published in the Daily Record, Lamont says she is resigning as leader “so the debate our country demands can take place. I firmly believe that Scotland’s place is in the UK and I do not believe in powers for power’s sake.
“For example, I think power should be devolved from Holyrood to communities. But colleagues need to realise that the focus of Scottish politics is now Holyrood, not Westminster.”
McLeish said on Saturday: “I think Johann is absolutely right to make the comments she has made.”
He told told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “For a decade now the party have been in decline and the SNP have been in the ascendancy. There has been a failure to rise to the devolution challenge.
“Overall though there has been a suffocating atmosphere of control that Westminster have been trying to put on Scotland. That’s what led Joanne, I think, finally to leave.”
“Labour in Westminster, Labour in London has not a clue about the realities of Scottish politics. Johann has been badly advised. The influences on Ed Miliband have not been helpful.
“Now what we’ve got is a situation after a decade that Labour is still in denial in the UK and ... if there’s any hiccup in the number of MPs we send to Westminster in 2015 this could be catastrophic for Ed Miliband’s effort to become prime minister.”
The Glasgow Pollok MSP has represented her constituency since 1999, taking over as leader in December 2011 after the party’s bruising defeat by the SNP in the Scottish parliament elections that year.
Her leadership was called into question during the referendum campaign, which proved a damaging experience for an already struggling party.
There was some speculation that Jim Murphy, one of the most high profile Labour figures in the later stages of the campaign, would return from Westminster to lead in Holyrood. The party was criticised for its unfocused strategy while traditional Labour voters considered the party’s association with the Conservatives under the Better Together umbrella campaign to be a betrayal.
Despite Scotland voting to reject independence in September referendum, her position had only become more precarious, with suggestions that Labour could pay a high price in next year’s general election, significantly in the greater Glasgow area, where voters in 12 Labour constituencies backed independence. Since the referendum, SNP membership has more than tripled with the party becoming the third largest in the UK.
Nicola Sturgeon, who will replace Alex Salmond as SNP leader and first minister next month, tweeted: “I wish Johann well … but if this is an accurate account of her reasons, @scottishlabour really is in meltdown”.
McLeish said Lamont had been unable to lead the party in Scotland amid “constant sniping” from MPs.
“It’s interesting to know that while we’ve had devolution of government from Westminster over the last 20 years, we’ve had no devolution of political power from the Labour party.”
McLeish said he had yet to decide whether to support any candidate in the forthcoming leadership contest. “My main concern is that anyone taking the job now has got to realise that the political plates have shifted between the UK and Scotland.”
Last weekend, former Labour first minister Jack McConnell described Scottish Labour as “a political machine that is angry about what has happened in Scotland in the recent past”. He warned that the election of Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader would make his own party’s challenge in winning back the confidence of the Scottish electorate even more difficult.
The shadow Scottish secretary, Margaret Curran, also argued that the party needed to return to its “socialist principles”.
