‘Michael Marra and the challenge of rebuilding Scottish Labour’

Dodging a daunting queue snaking around Glasgow University’s main building on Tuesday past, I visited the uni Labour Club’s stall during Freshers Week to find their affiliated arm of the party doing a roaring trade. Labour-curious students were eager to talk about the Scottish leadership election and the intricacies of the Burnham bounce. Four months on from an historic election defeat for Labour in Scotland which saw the party return only 17 MSPs to the Scottish Parliament, the atmosphere in Hunters Halls was refreshingly buoyant.

This was the university that gave Michael Marra his undergraduate degree some decades ago. Moving on from Glasgow University to a stint at the London School of Economics to a career in academia, Marra is no intellectual slouch. A politician of the soft left, a unionist from ‘Yes City’ and an economist by training, Michael Marra was today confirmed as the new leader of Scottish Labour. 

Political leadership does not tend to change hands against a backdrop of good times and positive polling. The task ahead of Marra – that of leading Scottish Labour as a party in opposition at Holyrood with a bruising round of elections in the recent past and uncertain council elections in the near future – is not for the faint-hearted. He has talked in this leadership campaign about the need for Scottish Labour to find its heart once more. The question now is whether Marra can turn that language of renewal into a programme capable of rebuilding the party.

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Marra hails from Dundee, a place once famous for jam, jute and journalism. Like the coarse, strong threads historically spun from jute’s rough fibre in the city’s textile production past, Scottish Labour’s membership base is crying out for the new leader to quickly weave a vision of hope that can inspire campaigners-in-waiting. Marra asserted often in the leadership campaign that the Labour Party is Scotland’s only vehicle for social change. Certainly, the appetite for service and community organising is tangible among the membership. His campaign has made clear that members are intended to play a central role in that internal renewal. A Scottish Labour led by Marra – a politician who has consistently prioritised political education – can provide the conditions for an era of development and empowerment that will enable local Labour teams to meaningfully forge deeper connections in the communities that need them most. 

While the ‘Jam tomorrow’ approach of Scottish nationalism continues to spill forth from a seemingly endless pot, recent weeks have seen senior SNP figures strike jarring notes of defiance after new PISA data revealed a decline in reading and maths attainment. Yet whatever Labour’s view of the SNP record and their acute awareness of the significant bearing that the UK political landscape had on their Scottish results, May’s election returned John Swinney’s party to government and left Scottish Labour facing another period of reflection. From this place of opposition, Marra’s ability to capture the right tone of probity and passion will be vital in establishing his authentic presence as a leader in Holyrood and beyond. There may well be times when the need to speak more in sorrow than in anger will be a prudent choice. Similarly,  Marra’s ongoing record on selecting pertinent and urgent campaign priorities will publicly prove the credentials of a politician who acts decisively in the interests of people across Scotland who need a strong Labour advocate. His so-called ‘moral purpose’ will set clear dividing lines between Scottish Labour and the SNP. Marra knows better than most about the business of building consensus and will doubtless be focused on opportunities to gain purposeful ground in the Scottish Parliament. 

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As leader of Scottish Labour, Marra now has an opportunity to make the case that a strong devolved Scotland within the United Kingdom can deliver. But doing so with 17 MSPs at Holyrood in a position of opposition will not be without its challenges. This means that the nuances of Marra’s relationships with Westminster parliamentarians and the Prime Minister will be pivotal in charting the course of constitutional politics. A thoughtful and highly-human ‘more in common’ message could resonate with Scottish voters just as Swinney’s Scottish exceptionalism appears misguided and ill-timed in a period of geopolitical and technological uncertainty. For Marra to effectively execute such a feat requires selfless discipline from colleagues, however well-meaning, from across the country who would do best to follow the lead of a prudent politician and work in lockstep with him when it comes to Scottish matters. 

The stakes are high and the next round of elections is never far. But if Scottish Labour’s down-to-earth, realist, clever new leader can crack the delivery of an effective opposition, if he can galvanise and build the capacity of the party troops and if he can maintain and maximise a purposeful relationship with the UK leadership that bolsters the union for the good of the people, then the rewards of a renewed Scottish Labour will be felt not only by Marra or Scottish Labour but by the country as a whole.

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