A FORMER Scottish Labour minister has said her party has lost its relevance and needs to “come to terms” with the fact that it is no longer a power in the land.
Margaret Curran said the SNP were “licking their lips” at the state of Scottish Labour, which was “now a small party in Scotland”.
She said: “We are not terribly relevant. We are not saying relevant things at the moment.”
Scottish Labour came fifth in May’s European Election, losing both its MEPs and falling to less than 10 per cent of the vote.
Its poll ratings have fallen sharply since Richard Leonard became Scottish leader in late 2017.
READ MORE: Scottish Labour 'on life support and facing terminal decline'
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland, Ms Curran said Labour was no longer embedded in the fabric of communities in the way it had been in past decades.
She said: “I think the Scottish Labour party particularly - and the UK Labour party should look at our experience - but it has to come to terms with the fact that we’re now a small party in Scotland.
“ think we have to accept we are not that powerful party anymore. We have no right to it. We have to earn that right again.”
Referring to how Labour was once woven into Scotland’s social fabric, she said: “I remember the Labour clubs, the churches had a big connection, both the Church of Scotland and Catholic church, had a lot of Labour people within them. There was quite a lot of overlap. “That’s all gone. That has all completely gone. That’s just reality. You need to readjust.”
However she said Scottish Labour was still failing to reform itself, 12 years after losing power to the SNP in 2007.
She said a key lesson for parties was learning from defeat then undertaking internal reforms, however she “struggled” to think what reforms Scottish labour had had since 2007.
READ MORE: Two-thirds of Labour voters fail to identify party's Scottish leader
She said: “I can think of reforms we did in government, but not reforms we introduced in the party.
“We’ve not done that and until we do that, we will not get routes back, we will not earn that right, we will not have that conversation with Scottish people.
“We’re not terribly relevant. We’re not saying relevant things at the moment, I think.
“I think we can, and I think we have to, and I think there’s a vacuum there for those things to be said, but we’re not doing it.”
READ MORE: Scottish Labour leadership accused of "empty words" on second Brexit referendum
Ms Curran, 60, was an MSP from 1999 to 2011 and a minister between 2002 and 2007.
She was the MP for Glasgow East from 2010 to 2015 before losing her seat to the SNP.
She is now an international trainer and consultant on political and women’s affairs in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
She said she “never had any hope” for the “hard left” faction who took over Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, but was still “gobsmacked” by their failure to tackle anti-Semitism.
A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: "Richard Leonard is ensuring that our organisation and operations are fully battle-ready.
“This will give us the best possible chance to win again in Scotland, not for our own sake but for the sake of all those people in all of those communities who need a Scottish Labour government."
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