Could Tom Harris be Scottish Labour’s next leader?

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

According to the BBC:

Mr Harris said he still hoped a senior MP such as Jim Murphy or Douglas Alexander would stand as a candidate. But he said he would be interested in competing for the post “if the party would be interested in having me”.

Mr Harris said he had been prompted to consider standing because of a lack of candidates emerging from Labour’s ranks at Holyrood. He said: “The reason I have allowed my name to be mentioned in the speculation about this is purely and simply because we lost in May.

“Iain Gray announced he was standing down in September, which is next week, and I don’t even know if that’s going ahead.”

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Mr Harris was critical of the lack of debate about Labour’s future leadership in Scotland. “I think this amount of time after the election when we did so badly, it is truly bizarre and very damaging to the party not having a leadership campaign,” he added.

After the elections in May, we rounded up some of the potential candidates to be Scottish Labour leader. It seems that Tom Harris has now added himself to that list. However, as things currently stand Harris would be ineligable, as he isn’t an MSP – but that may not be the case after the current review of Scottish Labour comes to a close.