Scottish Labour must look beyond its central Scotland heartland and refocus on areas like Dundee if it is to recover from its election humiliation, one of its MSPs has claimed.
In a stark assessment of Labour’s future prospects, former whip James Kelly said the party must reverse its “retreat” from the north of Scotland if it is to break the dominance of the SNP.
The Rutherglen MSP cited Labour’s electoral wipeout in Dundee as evidence of how the party is no longer representative of all of Scotland.
His comments, which were posted on a party website yesterday, come as Labour conducts a “root and branch” review of structure, organisation and policy in the wake of May’s Holyrood election drubbing.
Labour won both Dundee Scottish Parliament seats in 1999, but in May’s election lost both to the Nationalists Dundee City West by 6405 votes and Dundee City East by an astonishing 10,679 as the SNP romped to a majority.
The SNP also hold the Dundee East Westminster seat and control the city council.
“One of our big problems is that in Scottish Parliament terms we have retreated to a central Scotland base,” said Mr Kelly.
“Indeed, in the recent election, we were not even able to hold on there. A major challenge lies ahead to rebuild our support in areas like Dundee where we have clearly leaked. We need to learn again to become a national party.”
The SNP won all of the constituency seats in the north east of Scotland region, taking the scalps of long-serving MSPs from other parties.
The result left Labour with only three list MSPs in the region Jenny Marra, who lives in Dundee, and the Aberdeenshire-based Richard Baker and Lewis Macdonald.RebuildingMs Marra last night insisted Labour was rebuilding in Dundee.
“We know that people felt that Labour wasn’t standing up for what matters to them at the last election,” she said. “Labour in Dundee is rebuilding. We are fighting for things that matter in our communities.
“We recently fought to keep local bank branches in Lochee and Ninewells open and have just launched a campaign to bring the national football academy to Dundee.
“We continue to fight for tax breaks for the games industry in the city. Bringing new opportunities to Dundee is what our local Labour campaigns should be about.
“Labour will only deserve the trust of voters if we speak up for what matters and come up with good ideas that make a difference to everyday life. That’s what we intend to do.”
More than two months after Labour’s tally of 46 MSPs plummeted to 37, the party is also facing major problems over leadership.
No obvious candidate has emerged to succeed Iain Gray, in part due to the party’s ranks being depleted at Holyrood following high-profile casualties losing their seats to the SNP.
Dundee City West MSP Joe FitzPatrick said the comments were further proof Labour is “politically and geographically lost.”
“Voters in Dundee know the SNP offers positive policies that are working to make Scotland better and that with SNP MSPs and councillors they are seeing real improvements and investment in the city.
“The leadership election is turning into an embarrassing fiasco as no MSP wants the job and party bosses in London look to take over party operations again,” he said.
“Voters in Dundee were let down by the Labour Party, who have nothing left to offer them and no vision for the future.”