No excuse for delaying the leadership debate

By Tom Harris MP / @tom4scotland

Iain Gray, who leads Labour’s MSPs at Holyrood, announced in the immediate aftermath of our election catastrophe in May that he would stand down, probably in the autumn, once a replacement had been elected.

That was five months ago.

On Friday, the Procedures Committee of the Scottish Executive Committee agreed a timetable for the election of Iain’s replacement. That timetable, as you might expect, features a series of hustings at which the candidates – myself included – will be expected to set out our visions for the future of our party and our nation.

The date of the announcement of the result has been known for some weeks: December 17th. Even assuming the need for a four-week period for the casting and counting of ballot papers, that would allow six weeks in which any number of hustings could be organised throughout the country before balloting needs to start.

So it’s quite hard to understand why the draft timetable specifies that the first official hustings arranged by the party won’t happen for another six weeks, on November 20th – just one day before balloting starts.

Our party deserves better than this, surely? This internal election is arguably the most important we have had in our history. So much is at stake – not just the outcome of the next Scottish Parliament election but the very future of the United Kingdom; only by inspiring public confidence in our leader can we inspire the Scottish people’s confidence in our party and the Union which it champions.

And since our electoral fortunes are at their lowest ebb in living memory, a full, open, honest debate about where we went wrong and how we can put things right could not possibly be more urgent.

Yet if the draft timetable stands (and of course it will), the vast majority of those who choose to use their vote will do so before they have an opportunity to attend a hustings meeting. Because as we all know, the vast majority of postal votes, whether at general or party elections, are either returned within 48 hours or not at all. This one will be no different.

Yes, there will be an opportunity for candidates to address delegates at our one-day special conference to be held in Glasgow on October 29th. But after that, there will be a three-week period during which nothing will be organised by the party, followed by another three weeks of official hustings meetings. There are eight such events planned – all bar one of them will take place after ballot papers have started to be sent out to members.

Of course, CLPs, union branches and others can arrange their own hustings events, yes? Well, yes, except the advice from the Scottish general secretary states that “there is scope to facilitate these within the period for hustings.” Within the period for hustings? Sounds just a tad prescriptive, doesn’t it? There will be a much better chance of finding a candidate available for such a meeting if it takes place outside – or before – the official “period for hustings”.

For the life of me I cannot fathom the logic behind the notion that we must wait six weeks between now and the start of the party’s preferred period for hustings. We know the election’s going to happen. We know when the victor will be named. We know when ballot papers will be issued. We now have the opportunity to have six full weeks of debate before the first ballot paper is even issued. The party and party members deserve that, at least.

And Scotland not only deserves to have such a timetable – it needs to see an election between candidates who have every possible opportunity to explain what they stand for and where they want to lead our party and our nation.

The hustings need to start now, and the party must facilitate them.

The Scottish people haven’t given up on Labour, but they are disappointed in us. This election could yet provide us with an opportunity to start to turn that around, to surprise and impress the electorate. It’s not too late, but already it looks like we’ve stumbled at the very first hurdle.