RICHARD Leonard has stressed the UK Labour party has no influence over his future after one of Keir Starmer’s frontbenchers called on the under-fire leader to “consider his position”.
Yesterday, four of Mr Leonard’s MSPs called for him to quit as leader of Scottish Labour to avoid a catastrophe at May’s Holyrood election. Sir Keir Starmer distanced himself from the internal war, stressing it was a matter for Scottish Labour.
But this morning, Rachel Reeves, a member of Sir Keir’s shadow cabinet, called on Mr Leonard to “look at the opinion polls” and “consider his position”.
READ MORE: Richard Leonard hits back as Labour war breaks out
Speaing on Good Morning Scotland, Mr Leonard stressed he was only held to account by members of Scottish Labour.
He said: “Rachel Reeves is not a member of the Scottish Labour party and I am elected by members of the Scottish Labour party. That’s who I am accountable to.
“They elected me back in 2017 to lead the Scottish Labour party into the May 2021 Scottish Parliament elections – that is what I am on course to do.
“I have received a huge number of messages of support from right across the party and the trade unions and I am confident that I’ve got the backing of the members of the Scottish Labour party.”
READ MORE: Labour MSP: It's 'now or never' for party to replace Richard Leonard ahead of election 'disaster'
Mr Leonard said that his party’s success at Holyrood has been “advancing the policy agenda” after the Scottish Government included plans to set up a national care service and youth jobs guarantee in its Programme for Government, which Mr Leonard claimed was due to campaigning from his party.
He said: “One of the things that I really find frustrating is that on the very day that we got the Scottish Government to agree to our long-standing policy of the creation of a national care service alongside a National Health Service – that was the day some people chose to open up an attack.
“We have secured, in the last 24 hours, a commitment from the First Minister that any future national care service would be based on a not-for-profit basis.”
Mr Leonard insists that “the political environment is changing because of the pandemic” and he expects support for his party to grow ahead of May’s election.
READ MORE: Holyrood Labour veteran urges party to speak up and demand Leonard’s exit
He added: “I think people ae re-evaluating their priorities. I am sure that as people get nearer to the election next year, they will understand that the next five years, the next Scottish Government, the next Scottish Parliament’s priorities will need to be on recovering the economy, tackling the jobs crisis and investing in public services like our National Health Service.
“We need to be putting forward the people’s priorities, be outward looking, connecting with communities, connecting with workplaces, speaking up for those without a voice – that's what I intend the Scottish Labour party will do as long as I’m the leader of it.”
He added: “We will be going out in next year’s election to win every vote and every seat that we can.
“I inherited the Scottish Labour party that was in third place. I do not under-estimate the scale of the challenge that the Scottish Labour party faces ad I face that in all humility.
“I think the best chance we’ve got is to unite behind me, to go forward on that policy agenda which I’ve set out and it’s to win support for that because I think those ideas resonate with the people of Scotland.”
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