Jack McConnell: ‘How Scottish Labour can rise above SNP leadership chaos’

Humza Yousaf’s sudden resignation as First Minister of Scotland may have been self-inflicted but during his short tenure he did conduct himself with dignity, even when under pressure.

It is an incredible honour to be First Minister, but the post brings many personal and political challenges and not all of Scotland’s recent incumbents have behaved with the same grace.

Yes, he made mistakes, but he inherited a difficult legacy. And coalition government is not for the faint-hearted, particularly with a group as challenging as the Scottish Green MSPs. I wish him well as he prepares for life after Bute House. He is still a young man and has a lot to offer his country.

‘Tell them we need an election now’

Travelling across Edinburgh, I was struck by the immediate reaction to the news. Not from politicians and reporters feverishly speculating on who will replace him as First Minister, but from the non-politicians I met.

The taxi driver who told me that he was fed up with both Holyrood and Westminster obsessing with issues that were not his everyday concerns: NHS waiting times and the state of our schools. He had had enough of both governing parties “changing leaders all the time”. His conclusion was that a clear out was needed. A rail worker’s immediate reaction was even starker. She just said “Please Jack, tell them we need an election now.”

Rishi Sunak cannot put off the inevitable, and there will be a UK general election sometime this year. But this current session of the Scottish Parliament still has two years to run. Yousaf’s resignation may well result in a snap election, but whatever the next few weeks and months bring, everyone concerned with Scotland’s future must surely accept that our country is in a mess.

Despite spending significantly more money per head, our public services are failing. People in pain cannot get an appointment with their GP and wait for long hours at A&E. We are a nation of islands, yet the Scottish government leave people stranded and kill off jobs because lifeline ferries are overdue and way over budget. The highest level of drug deaths in Europe is devastating. Our schools, once the pride of the nation, are failing our young people as bad reforms and indifference from SNP Ministers impact on results. But it doesn’t have to be like this.

Devolution 25 years on

Next Monday is the 25^th anniversary of the first Scottish Parliament election. The devolution of power gave Scotland a chance to modernise and energise. And for a while it worked. I and my Scottish Labour colleagues are proud of what we achieved in those early years.

The scale of change was remarkable: historic land ownership and access reforms, wholesale modernisation of our system of criminal justice, new protections and rights in education and health, the smoking ban ahead of the UK and the largest-ever school building programme.

Scotland had a renewed sense of self-confidence, both at home and internationally. All with fewer Labour MSPs than the SNP has had at any time since 2011, working in a challenging coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

‘Persuading people Labour has the ambition to change lives for the better’

Scottish Labour should rise above the current shenanigans. It must focus on how to re-build the country. And not just the renewal of our public services and democratic infrastructure, but support for business and enterprise too. There has been no national strategy to generate jobs and create wealth in Scotland since the 2008 financial crash, and our economy has suffered. Labour’s Scottish and UK leadership can jointly rise to this challenge with a bold vision and fresh ideas.

We must not underestimate the challenge. Scottish Labour has a charismatic modern leader but there are large parts of Scotland where nationalism has developed deep roots. Scottish Labour needs to build support right across the country persuading people that it has the ambition to change the country, and their lives, for the better.

It is time for a fresh start for devolution and a fresh start for Scotland so it can once again be a country we can all be proud to call home.

Read our coverage of the 2024 local elections here.

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