NICOLA Sturgeon has claimed that Richard Leonard’s leadership is the least of Scottish Labour’s problems - stressing that a string of leaders has not made a difference to the party's fortunes.
Mr Leonard is under pressure to quit as leader of Scottish Labour after a failure to improve the party’s standing in polling with the public ahead of next year’s Holyrood election.
Ms Sturgeon was asked about Mr Leonard’s future on Sky News.
She said: “I have lost count of the number of leaders Labour have had over the years the SNP’s been in government - it doesn’t seem to make much difference.
READ MORE: Labour MSP: It's 'now or never' for party to replace Richard Leonard ahead of election 'disaster'
“I’ve got no view one way or the other on whether Richard Leonard should be leader of Scottish Labour or somebody else.
“Scottish Labour has got much more fundamental issues – they are at sea on the key issue of Scotland’s future. Most people in Scotland don’t really know what Scottish Labour is for.”
She added: “I listened to Richard Leonard yesterday justify his continued leadership. His main justification appeared to be that the things he believed in were already being done or were being progressed by the SNP in government.
READ MORE: Richard Leonard tells Labour to 'unite behind me' after Rachel Reeves calls for him to quit
“If the SNP in government is doing the things he thinks is important, it just continues to beg the question ‘ what exactly is Scottish Labour for?’
“I think until they’ve answered that question and until they get a position that distinguishes them from the Conservatives on the matter of Scotland’s future, then they can have as many leaders as they like but they are going to continue to find it really hard to make any impact on Scottish politics.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel