KEZIA Dugdale's drive to inject new blood into the Labour benches has flopped, rivals claim, after a string of party veterans found themselves in pole position to return to Holyrood.
Well-established Labour figures have emerged victorious from bruising battles for prime slots on the party lists, as the results of an internal scrap for political survival were revealed.
After being appointed leader last year, Ms Dugdale said she would work to attract fresh talent to the party and encourage new faces to stand for Holyrood.
However, in the battle for list rankings, party stalwarts have largely come out on top with ex-MP Anas Sarwar and former leaders Johann Lamont and Iain Gray securing prominent positions that all but guarantee their election. Shadow finance secretary Jackie Baillie and Lewis Macdonald - both Labour MSPs since the dawn of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 - are set to return while former MP Thomas Docherty is likely to win a Holyrood seat after coming third in the Mid Scotland and Fife contest.
Kezia Dugdale unveils Scottish Labour list candidates for Scottish Parliament elections
A Labour insider said MSPs had effectively been through a mandatory reselection process with polls consistently predicting that the party's politicians would be reliant on list rankings and Holyrood's proportional representation voting system for survival.
He added: "We lose a bit of talent and continuity, but it might be a good thing in the end as we all know there are MSPs who just float about and don't do very much. They know they can't get away with that anymore."
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, speaking as a new poll revealed Labour was neck-and-neck with Ruth Davidson's party in a battle for second place, said: "Kezia Dugdale claimed she wanted to bring in fresh blood, but it's clear from this that, after the next election, it'll be same old Labour.
"Under Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservatives have brought in a host of new candidates from all walks of life. By contrast Scottish Labour has totally failed to renew its offer to voters."
Sitting MSPs whose careers look to be over after failing to win enough support include Michael McMahon, Margaret McCulloch, John Pentland, Paul Martin and Hanzala Malik.
Anne McTaggart, who has campaigned for an opt-out organ donation system, faced embarrassment as she came twelfth on the Glasgow list. Overall, turnout among party members was 62 per cent.
Ken Macintosh, who challenged Ms Dugdale for the leadership last year but was comfortably defeated, faces an uncertain future after coming fourth in West Scotland but will be hoping to have just done enough to sneak back in.
Jenny Marra, who has won plaudits since her election in 2011 and Neil Findlay, an ally of Jeremy Corbyn, are almost certain to retain their seats while Ms Dugdale and her deputy Alex Rowley were granted top slot in their regions automatically under party rules.
Alex Rowley to lead Labour's Holyrood elections campaign
Among a handful of new faces who are likely to be elected in less than three months' time are Monica Lennon, a highly rated Lanarkshire councillor, and Richard Leonard, a left wing Trade Union organiser.
Ms Dugdale said she was "absolutely delighted" with those that had been selected. She added: "At the start of this process I said I wanted to encourage as many people as possible to join our movement so we can change our country. From experienced MSPs to new young candidates, from former teachers to trade union officials, and from small business owners to charity workers - this is an impressive list of candidates.
"We are in no doubt about the scale of the challenge we face, but Scottish Labour heads into the election in May full of confidence in our vision for Scotland."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel