SCOTTISH Labour’s creaking behind-the-scenes organisation means the party is not in a fit state to fight the coming Holyrood election, a leaked internal report has warned.
Leader Richard Leonard commissioned the work in late 2018, asking his then deputy, Lesley Laird, to report on whether the party was “battle-ready for 2021”.
A draft report by Ms Laird, who lost her seat in December’s general election, is scathing about how the party has been run.
Staff are described as “demotivated” and undermined by politicians, and the party revealed to lack even short term plans for improving its finances, fundraising and membership.
The SNP said it was further proof that Scottish Labour, which lost six of its seven MPs and came third behind the Tories on 18.6 per cent of the vote last month, was washed up.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon has called for a breakaway Scottish party that was independent from UK Labour on policy and finances.
However the draft report, obtained by the Daily Record, suggests Scottish Labour would struggle without its financial support from London.
It said: “There is no detailed financial or business plan for Scottish Labour. There is no one, three or five-year-plan.”
It also said there was “no membership strategy”, adding: “We do not manage our membership in terms of attraction, retention or development”.
Fundraising was “limited” and “not aligned to strategy, business plan or political objectives”, while the party’s communications operation was outdated and ineffective.
Although staff were highly rated, they themselves felt “frustrated and demotivated when elected representatives, through their words and actions, undermine the huge amount of work and effort they are making to deliver for our party”.
The report also found “not enough oversight, governance and hands on working” by members of the party’s governing body, its Scottish Executive Committee, leading to “high levels of frustration” and an inability to provide the governance needed “on key aspects of the party’s operations”.
It concluded there was a need to make urgent and “tough choices” on “how we spend our time, money and resources if we are to move the dial on our political ambitions.”
A Labour source stressed the report was “subject to change”.
The SNP said it was clear “Scottish Labour is close to being finished as a significant electoral force”.
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