Summary
- Jim Murphy is elected Scottish Labour leader in an emphatic victory. The former Scottish secretary took 55.7% of the vote, with Neil Findlay far behind on 34.5%.
- Kezia Dugdale is elected deputy leader with 62.9% of the vote.
That’s it for our live blog from Glasgow today. Thanks for reading.
Updated
Meanwhile, Pat Rafferty, secretary of Unite Scotland, which backed Neil Findlay in the campaign, offers a cautious welcome to Murphy:
Unite was proud to support Neil and his share of the vote is enough to show his popular policies have resonance among working people in Scotland.
Arguably, Jim Murphy recognised this appetite for real change during the hustings, because as the campaign progressed his arguments became bolder on issues like taxation and a living wage. Jim now needs to turn words into action if he wants to start the process of re-building Scottish Labour
Labour leader Ed Miliband has congratulated Murphy too, and paid tribute to all the candidates involved in a “strong campaign”.
Jim showed in the referendum campaign that he is a fighter. He showed in the leadership campaign that he is a leader. I am going to be standing shoulder to shoulder with Jim in the campaign to get David Cameron out at the General Election.
As Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale win leadership and deputy leadership of the Scottish Labour party, the first minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon congratulates the pair:
I congratulate Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale on their election as leader and deputy leader of Labour in Scotland. I know that the challenges of leadership are never easy, so I offer my best wishes for the job they have ahead.
While we will undoubtedly cross swords often in the months ahead, my door is always open to those who wish to find common ground and work together in the best interests of people in Scotland – something I hope we will have the opportunity to do.”
Updated
As commentator Gerry Hassan notes, there’s a notable lack of detailed info about the voters in this election
Giving his final remarks to the press at the end of the event, Murphy says:
- he doesn’t intend to lose a single Labour seat to the SNP in next May’s general election
- he’s not trying to convince yes voters that they were wrong
- he will make clear where he intends to stand for Holyrood in the new year
- Kezia Dugdale will take on first minister’s questions in the Scottish parliament in the interim
- he is not at all daunted by the task: “polls are there to be proved wrong”
Neil Findlay tells the Guardian that he was “really delighted” with his campaign, and the policy issues it raised around how to deal with the deep-seated health and wealth inequalities in Scotland. “Now we have a new leader and I hope that they will be central to the programme of Scottish Labour going forward.”
Updated
Sarah Boyack has congratulated Murphy on his victory:
Jim has the hardest task of any our past leaders in reshaping our party from its very core to be fit for purpose. Nicola Sturgeon must be stopped in her tracks in her attempt to wipe us out, because Scotland needs a strong Labour Party with its feet firmly on the ground to re-engage and build support with voters. Jim has my total support in doing that, and I will continue to serve the party 100%.
Updated
Well that was an emphatic victory for Murphy. Interesting that Findlay didn’t do at all as well as expected in the union section, with Murphy running him pretty close. The break down of the affliates is 52% for Findlay and 40% for Murphy, nowhere near as high for Murphy as predicted.
Some initial reaction on Twitter...
This from Scottish Labour activist and blogger Duncan Hothersall:
While the SNP never misses a trick...
Scottish Labour is changing, says Murphy as he comes to a close: we’re earning the right to be heard, to serve again.
I understand the cries for change...I was born here, I live here, I will lead here. I will always put Scotland first.
Nothing is beyond us if we work together. First we have to tear down those barriers that hold back so many of our fellow citizens.
This is an opportunity to build “the fairest nation on earth”, he concludes.
Here’s a snatched audio clip of Murphy talking about winning the contest:
Updated
Jim Murphy makes an appeal to those who voted yes in the referendum saying we shouldn’t let a single vote on a single day divide us. We have so much more in common than with the other parties who voted for the union, he says.
“There can be no excuses now: we have the power, the question is do we have the purpose?” Says the Scottish Labour party will use the powers for fairness and an end to poverty.
The SNP and in particular Nicola Sturgeon have ben accused of stealing Labour’s clothes on social justice in recent weeks. This morning, Murphy is taking them right back.
Full results for leadership election
MPs/MSPs/MEPs
Sarah Boyack 4.22%
Neil Findlay 6.75%
Jim Murphy 22.36%
Party members
SB 2.3%
NF 10.89%
JM 20.14%
Affiliates
SB 2.73%
NF 17.34
JM 13.26%
Murphy begins with a joke: “Today is a fulfilment of a dream for me. I’ve always dreamt of being appointed the captain of a team in the east end of Glasgow.”
He describes it as a “remarkable honour”. He adds: “Scotland is changing and so too must Scottish Labour. I’m ambitious for our party because I’m ambitious for our country”.
He goes on the thanks Findlay and Boyack. Makes a point of thanking trades unions as well as party members. Contrasts the healthy debate within Scottish Labour with the coronation of the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon.
Jim Murphy is elected the new leader of Scottish Labour
The results are as follows:
Sarah Boyack 9.24%
Neil Findlay 34.99%
Jim Murphy 55.77%
Dugdale says: I am proud to be Labour and Scottish Labour has a fine legacy.
Today is a new day and a fresh start. These last few weeks showed us to be a party united in purpose”.
I don’t just want people to vote Labour, I want them to be proud to vote Labour.
Kezia Dugdale is elected deputy leader of the Scottish Labour party
Now we have the results for deputy: Kezia Dugdale is elected with 62.9% of the vote compared with 37.1% to Katy Clark.
Updated
And we’re off. All five candidates have entered the room to applause as the chair of Scottish Labour’s executive committee introduces the event and praises the engagement of members over the past month.
He thanks Johann Lamont “who served this Scottish Labour party with distinction”.
He also thanks all the candidates, saying it has been a “fantastic contest, real debate and a real sense of shared purpose”.
He say it’s clear “that everyone is up for the fight to get rid of the Tories in May and ensure that our new leader is first minister in 2016”.
Here’s the man in charge of this morning’s proceedings...
Here’s a wee Vine of the room where the likes of Douglas Alexander and are gathered with activists to hear the results.
If you want to refresh your memory of the events leading up to this morning’s announcement, you can read about Sarah Boyack becoming the first candidate to declare, how Murphy and Findlay entered the race and consequences for Ed Miliband.
You can also read all three answering Guardian readers’ questions in our online hustings last week here.
And here’s comment from Ian Jack this morning on Murphy’s leadership challenges.
Three candidates have put themselves forward to replace Johann Lamont.
Jim Murphy, who has pledged to give up his Westminster seat for Holyrood if elected, has emerged as the frontrunner in the contest and is very likely to win this morning. But critics say his New Labour outlook and previous backing for Trident and the Iraq war could prove disastrous in Labour’s urban heartlands.
Neil Findlay, currently Holyrood’s shadow health secretary and a member of the Campaign for Socialism, is popular on the left of the party, and enjoys strong trade union backing. It will be interesting to see how that popularity carries through to the final figures.
Sarah Boyack, a former transport minister who has been at Holyrood since its formation in 1999, has been a significant figure in the party’s internal policy reforms, working alongside Murphy on restructuring the party organisation and advising Lamont on her proposals for greater devolution.
In the contest for deputy leadership, Kezia Dugdale - Labour’s education spokesperson in Holyrood - took an early lead in parliamentary endorsements against the only other candidate, Katy Clark, Labour MP for North Ayrshire and Arran.
Updated
This morning the Scottish Labour party announces the results of its leadership and deputy leadership elections at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.
I’ll be blogging live from the event which, as I reported yesterday, may yet throw up a few surprises.
The election was prompted by the resignation of Johann Lamont, who stood down as leader in October after accusing colleagues of trying to run Scotland “like a branch office of London”.
This is a hugely important moment for the Scottish Labour party, which has been trailing in the polls after a bruising independence referendum campaign and faces an unprecedented surge in support for the SNP.
All five candidates have stressed the need for unity in advance of what Ed Miliband described in a recent speech in Glasgow as “the most important election for a generation”.
