Labour's Lamont lament as Scottish leader resigns

Labour leader Ed Miliband and Johann Lamont, who has resigned as Scottish Labour leader. Credit: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Exactly a month ago I asked Labour’s Johann Lamont if she would lead her party into the 2016 Holyrood elections.

Her reply was unequivocal: "Absolutely, absolutely. I am determined."

A month, it turns out, is a very long time indeed in politics. Ms Lamont resigned as Scottish leader last night. Why?

From the interview she gave to the Daily Record newspaper it is clear she is deeply frustrated with the attitude of the UK Labour leadership to Scotland.

This is what she told the paper:

Ouch.

First Minister Alex Salmond and Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont. Credit: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

And the straw that broke the camel’s back was, Ms Lamont indicated, a plan by the UK leadership to remove the party’s senior official in Scotland which no-one told her about.

Now there are always two sides to every story and it is true there was growing criticism of Ms Lamont’s leadership.

She was said, by some colleagues north and south of the border, to be failing to lay a glove on Alex Salmond at First Minister’s questions.

It was claimed, in private of course, that she lacked the combination of gravitas, ruthlessness and charisma that a political leader, a potential First Minister, required.

Johann Lamont accused the Westminster leadership of treating the Scottish party as a 'branch office'. Credit: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

Those who make these criticisms would do well to cast their mind back to when Ms Lamont succeeded Iain Gray as Labour leader after a crushing defeat which allowed the SNP to form a majority government and take forward the independence referendum.

Ms Lamont defeated the relatively low profile MSP Ken McIntosh and MP Tom Harris. They were the only candidates.

While all three have their merits you would be hard pushed to argue that they were the creme de la creme of Scottish Labour, where the most ambitious and brightest have always seen Westminster as the place to be.

For example, two of Labour’s more able MSPs, Margaret Curran and Cathy Jamieson, both stood down fairly recently from Holyrood to become MPs. A sign, their opponents would say, that they regarded the Scottish Parliament as inferior to Westminster.

Most of the big hitters in Scottish Labour are all in the UK Parliament and even though many went before the Scottish Parliament was established, none has decided to switch the Gothic splendour of Westminster for the angular Miralles architecture of Holyrood.

Therein lies Labour’s problem and the roots of Ms Lamont’s resignation frustration.

Who will put their names forward to succeed Johann Lamont in Holyrood? Credit: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire

Although the Unionist parties won the independence referendum, the balance of power in the UK has permanently shifted northward.

Plenty of people inside Labour recognise that but a large number, including many of their current MPs, can’t see, or refuse to accept, that new political reality.

So it will be interesting to see who puts their name forward to succeed Ms Lamont.

Speculation centres on Jim Murphy, a still relatively young Scottish MP and former minister who had a high-profile campaigning role in the referendum speaking to Scots from his Irn Bru soapbox.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown had a high-profile campaigning role during the referendum. Credit: Garry F McHarg/PA Wire

Or might Gordon Brown, who was also judged to have had a good referendum, decide to make the change and embark on his final political mission - to save Scottish Labour and defeat the SNP?

Of the two the most extraordinary would be a move by Mr Brown, which is unlikely, though it is unwise ever the predict what the former Prime Minister might, or might not, do.

Mr Murphy would certainly be a tough political opponent for the First Minister in waiting, Nicola Sturgeon.

But commentators (of left and right, unionist and nationalist) agree it will take more than a new leader to help Labour in Scotland.

Labour's Jim Murphy pictured in Glasgow as Scotland rejected independence. Credit: Lynne Cameron/PA Wire

It needs new, younger, MSPs to add to the talent gene pool. It needs new ideas, the argument goes. It needs, its critics say, to rebuild a convincing left-of-centre "narrative" and take on the SNP, which has occupied that political space.

Strange as it may seem Labour in Scotland is behaving like it lost not won the referendum.

Parties that lose elections, or referendums, are usually the ones that end up with divisions and leadership battles.

You would be forgiven for thinking that the SNP, with an uncontested leadership vote and soaring membership, had won on September 18.

You would be forgiven for thinking that the SNP won on September 18. Credit: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

A quick reminder: the SNP lost. But you would not think it as it continues to set the political agenda north of the border.

Labour needs to think long and hard about Scotland, its attitude to Holyrood and party autonomy north of the Border.

That may be hard for some of its senior figures, up to an including Ed Miliband, to accept but it is the deeper lesson of Ms Lamont’s resignation.

You can see my interview with Ms Lamont for Representing Border here