Rowley becomes interim leader with NEC meeting next weekend to decide timetable

Alex Rowley has become Scottish Labour’s acting leader following Kezia Dugdale’s decision to stand down from the top job.

The executive committee of the Scottish party will meet next weekend to decide on a timetable for the leadership contest. The meeting, scheduled for Saturday September 9th, will dictate what the processes around the contest shall be.

Rowley, who is currently deputy leader, is tipped by some for the top job himself. The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP would have to resign his post as deputy were he to run for the leadership, it is understood.

Rowley said in a statement: “Under the leadership of Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour Party is stronger and more united than it was when she took the job, we have a platform on which to build. On behalf of the party, I wish her well.”

Brian Roy, general secretary of the Scottish Labour Party, said: “Over the coming weeks the Scottish Executive Committee of the Labour Party will decide the process and timetable for a leadership election.”

Dugdale wrote in her resignation letter  that “a marker of success for me was to leave as leader with the party in better shape than I found it and I have done that.”

Referring to the tragic death of Gordon Aikman from motor neurone disease earlier this year, she wrote: “Earlier this year I lost a dear friend who taught me a lot about how to live.”

“His terminal illness forced him to identify what he really wanted from life, how to make the most of it and how to make a difference. He taught me how precious and short life was and never to waste a moment.”