A controversial former Glasgow City Council leader will decide today whether to launch a high-stakes political comeback for Labour.
Steven Purcell, who quit the post after suffering from problems with cocaine and alcohol, has to inform his party by Wednesday if he wants a return to the city chambers.
He told the Sunday Herald yesterday: "After a final discussion with my family tomorrow at our normal Sunday get together I will make my final decision either way then."
However, opinion is divided on the prospect of a Purcell candidacy, with one Labour source saying there is “no appetite” for “resurrecting figures from the past”.
Read more: Former leader of Glasgow City Council Steven Purcell considers political comeback for Labour
Purcell led Scotland’s largest local authority between 2005 and 2010, but resigned after checking in to a rehab clinic in Peebleshire that specialises in treating alcohol and drug addictions. He also quit as a councillor and became a business consultant.
It later emerged that police officers from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) had visited him as leader to warn him about a potential blackmail threat.
The Herald revealed earlier this month that Purcell, six years on from the trauma of leaving front-line politics, is mulling over a Glasgow comeback at next year’s local government elections.
Potential candidates have to submit a nomination form to a Local Campaign Forum (LCF) by the middle of the week. An assessment panel will interview applicants and make recommendations on whether a nominee should be included on a panel of candidates.
If he made it on to the panel, Purcell would be expected to seek candidacies in either the northwest of the city – his old stomping ground – or the southside, where he lives.
LCFs across the country are expected to put potential candidates through their paces. One of the questions LCF members are likely to ask applicants is whether they have ever done anything that could embarrass the party.
One Labour insider said : “There is next to no appetite in Glasgow Labour for Steven to return. We need new candidates, rather than resurrecting figures from the past.”
However, another source was more positive: “He’s like a talented football player you once liked. You want to see a flash of the talent back.”
As a councillor, Purcell was firmly on the New Labour wing of the party and helped deliver a £220m public-private partnership programme (PPP) to refurbish and rebuild city secondary schools. He was also tipped as a future First Minister.
Read more: Leadership hopeful Owen Smith says Scottish Labour party did not grasp national pride and identity
However, he has since moved to the left and supports UK leader Jeremy Corbyn.
In an interview in 2014, he said of his past troubles: “Of the small number of times I had foolishly partaken in the use of cocaine I knew it hadn’t been filmed because I knew who was in the room and I was lucid enough to recall who was there.”
He also said at the time: “I resigned because I had a drink problem. I recognised it was getting so severe that I was not functioning at the level the leader of a city should."
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