By Tom Gordon

THE longest serving chair of the Holyrood Labour group has urged people to publicly demand Richard Leonard’s resignation, saying he had failed to grow into a leader.

Duncan McNeil, who was effectively the shop steward for Labour MSPs for a decade, said that unless Labour members spoke out their silence would be taken as consent to Mr Leonard staying on.

He said people had to put loyalty “to the party and its prospects” before loyalty to one man.

The former Greenock and Inverclyde MSP said the situation in the party was “desperately sad”, but Mr Leonard’s polling numbers were “terrible” and he had to go.

A former shipyard worker and official in Mr Leonard’s GMB union, Mr McNeil was one of the few authentic working class voices at Holyrood from 1999 to 2016.

He told the Herald, he said: “I think Richard’s seen as a nice guy and he doesn’t offend many people.

“But it just hasn’t happened for him. It just hasn’t happened.

“It was important that people spoke out. It was a hard message. It wasn’t the first time he heard it.

“But it was a message people were prepared to go public with because they see the difference between being loyal to Richard and loyal to the party and its prospects and what it stands for. It’s something that I think had to be done.”

Recent polling put Labour on course to lose six MSPs next year on 14 per cent support.

Mr McNeil also criticised Mr Leonard’s response yesterday, saying he should not have dismissed the rebels MSPs as unrepresentative malcontents and instantly threatened them with deselection.

He said: “He tries to portray this difficult situation that we’re in, his leadership’s in, as something that’s only confined to the Scottish Parliament group, and a small amount of people in the group.

“I regularly speak to former colleagues and people in the wider Labour and trade movement who were regretfully coming to the conclusion that Richard wasn’t getting the traction he needed as leader. It’s a difficult job, there no doubt about it.

“But he wasn’t making that progress that we wished he could make as leader of the party.

“It’s not often I would speak publicly about the party, but I think the time has come.

“Those not speaking out now are presumed to be supportive.

“He’s saying, ‘It’s only a couple of malcontents in the Labour group, it’s people who never supported me in the first instance’.

“I think there was general goodwill for Richard but it has been squandered over the piece.

“Then he went on to say that this was something that would be sorted out by deselection almost.

“Now people have decided their first loyalty is to the Labour party and they need to speak out.

“Because biting your tongue is being construed as some sort of loyalty and that cannot take place.

“The response to it really shocked me - that it’s only a couple of MSPs that have been causing trouble all the time, and deselection is being threatened as the solution to this problem.

“His numbers are terrible. In some cases I think the 14% could be flattering in some areas.

“The electorate through the polls have made their decision that Richard’s not for them.

“People who are loyal to the Labour Party need to speak up on behalf of those people who would want to vote Labour, and if Richard is preventing that he needs to go.

“Numbers don’t lie, and Richard really must take cognisance of that and step aside.

“There was no recognition in his response that he had any personal responsibility for this at all.

“It’s not a comfortable place for anybody, particularly for old soldiers like me to be speaking out publicly, but the situation is dire and it requires Richard to step aside.”

However another party veteran, former treasurer Bob Thomson, backed Mr Leonard’s approach in a message to MSPs last night.

He said: “Elected representatives and candidates to be representatives must undertake to adhere to Party rules, democracy and policy, otherwise they should not put themselves forward as candidates, nor should they be accepted as candidates.”