RICHARD Leonard will today try to reassert his waning authority over Scottish Labour as he confronts his MSPs after presiding over a historic collapse in the party’s support.
The Scottish Labour leader also faces calls for an emergency meeting of the party’s ruling body in Scotland which could potentially discuss his future.
One party source said no one wanted another leadership contest, but the decline during Mr Leonard’s 18 months in charge was so bad every MP and MSP now feared for their job.
Labour, which once dominated Scotland for generations was reduced to fifth place in the European election, slumping from 26 to 9 per cent of the vote and losing both its MEPs, including David Martin, the UK’s longest-serving MEP, who was first elected in 1984.
READ MORE: Tories and Labour panic as election sparks demand for Brexit and indyref2 votes
It was the party’s worst result north of the border since 1910.
Even in the former Labour heartland of Glasgow, Labour’s vote fell from 35 to just 15%.
Two Scottish Labour MPs issued an excoriating public criticism of Mr Leonard, his lieutenants, and the UK Leader Jeremy Corbyn for the party’s disastrous performance.
Edinburgh South’s Ian Murray and East Lothian’s Martin Whitfield said voters had delivered an “utterly damning verdict” on Labour’s ambivalence on Brexit, and said of Mr Corbyn and Mr Leonard: “They stuck their heads in the Brexit sand because they can’t lead.”
Demanding Labour support a People’s Vote, they said: “If we fail to listen and learn, our party will never recover.“
They criticised for Mr Leonard, a Corbyn loyalist, for “meekly” echoing the UK labour campaign, even putting Mr Corbyn’s face on leaflets instead of the Scottish leader.
They wrote: “The blame for the worst result in Scottish Labour’s history lies squarely with our party’s leadership.
“It is official Labour Party policy to support a People’s Vote as a way out of this catastrophic mess, yet Jeremy Corbyn snubbed our membership and refused to embrace it.
“As a result, he personally handed victory to Nigel Farage.
“This was Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Leonard’s manifesto, their message, their decision to ignore the membership and what voters were saying to us.
“It was their election campaign and their mess. They stuck their heads in the Brexit sand because they can’t lead.
“We have paid the price for their failure and we have been wiped off the electoral map.
“These results must now act an urgent wake-up call for Richard Leonard, deputy leader Lesley Laird and campaigns manager Neil Findlay.”
READ MORE: Scottish Labour MPs slam leadership saying party may ‘never recover’ from ‘worst ever’ result
Mr Martin, 64, said Labour had suffered because of a lack of a clear message on Brexit.
He said: “Our message was poor, we didn’t really communicate our position and some people might say that is because we don’t have one.
“In fairness to Corbyn I think he genuinely thinks he has to deliver on the result of the national referendum, but on the other hand he has seen over the last few years how damaging Brexit is going to be to the country.
“He is trying to ride two horses and it has, of course, proved impossible.”
He added: “Labour’s message from the outset should have been we are the party which wants to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom and keep the UK in Europe, and reform both.”
Johanna Baxter, a member of Labour’s Scottish Executive Committee (SEC), said the result reflected a “failure of leadership” on the biggest issue to face the country in generations.
In a letter to Mr Leonard, she said: “The SEC is not due to meet again until September.
“We cannot wait until September to address the causes of this defeat. I request that an urgent meeting of the SEC is scheduled as soon as possible to discuss how this position is going to be resolved.”
Remarkably, Mr Leonard initially responded to the result by issuing a statement that didn’t mention Brexit.
“The divisions caused by the competing nationalisms of the UK and Scottish Governments continue to be a distraction from both of their failures,” he said.
“Labour must, and will, do more to challenge these failures and put forward our positive alternatives to invest in our people, our communities and our public services.”
He later issued an email to party members admitted the public had lost trust in Labour, declaring he now backed “the option to remain and that any Brexit deal should be ratified by a second public vote”.
However even this appeared to be parroting Mr Corbyn’s position and relied on a “deal” that looks as far away as ever.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said: “Labour’s result was catastrophic for a party that had near hegemony in Scotland in my lifetime. I don’t even know how they answer to that.”
Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said: “Labour thought they were being smart by trying to bridge the divide when all they were doing was sitting on the fence. It was unclear exactly what they were standing for. I hope the Labour party learn that lesson and back a People’s Vote so we can put an end to this nonsense.”
David Clarke, Vice-Chair of the European Movement in Scotland, said: “Scottish Labour saw its vote virtually halve to just 9.3%, its worst result ever – a direct consequence of its UK leadership’s equivocation over the EU and, above all, a second referendum.
“We therefore call upon UK Labour and the Scottish Labour Party to reverse their stance so far and to openly demand a People’s Vote, with the option of Remain on the ballot paper.”
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