Neil Findlay: Every day was like trench warfare in Scottish Labour

These values and his unwavering support for Jeremy Corbyn led to him being marginalised within Scottish Labour. Thus, few were surprised when Findlay announced his intention to leave Holyrood.

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He’s since founded a political consultancy, working primarily with social outreach projects and promoting radical and left-wing causes. He’s also written a series of political works, the latest of which – Hope and Despair – was published last week. It chronicles the last few years of his time as an MSP and is by far the most controversial of anything he’s written.

Findlay says he loved being an MSP, even when it became evident that his party leadership began to regard him as an irritant. “Most of the time I loved the job,” he said. “I loved campaigning on issues I felt passionately about and making a difference for constituents.

“I loved working with trade unions on issues like blacklisting, spy-cops and the miners’ justice campaign. But I hated the hypocrisy; the double standards and sense of entitlement, especially from some in my own party.”

How intense did the hostility towards him become from within Scottish Labour? “I only knew one of my colleagues before I was elected (Elaine Smith). I never really did the schmoozing, networking thing with other MPs and MSPs. I wasn’t really in that circle.

“For a while and because I was an unknown no one knew my views but as time passed some people I think grew to respect me despite maybe not agreeing. Others merely tolerated me or tried to bring me into the tent in the hope it would shut my mouth.

Neil Findlay at Holyrood (Image: free)

“All of this changed during the civil war that broke out in the party. Attacks were being orchestrated against the Left and every day began to feel like trench warfare.”

His one major regret at policy level though, was allowing himself to be persuaded into voting for the creation of Police Scotland. He feels this has been disastrous for community policing which “has all but disappeared in working-class communities”.

And he felt that there were too few MSPs of an independent mind who were willing to speak out on issues, irrespective of their party’s position on them. Despite all the promises that Holyrood would elevate the conduct of politics, he felt the party whips became too powerful. “They dictated who got to speak; who got to fill the committee places and who got to debate on specific topics.

“Too many MSPs simply went along with this and failed to challenge it. At least at Westminster there was always an awkward squad willing to challenge their own government or party. But that barely exists in Holyrood.

“My greatest regret though, was trying and failing to convince the Labour Party to adopt a devo-max position in the run-up to the 2014 referendum. I think this was a huge and still unfathomable act of self-harm that will come to be seen as the Scottish party’s greatest error.”

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Yet Findlay still managed to advocate successfully for unfashionably left-wing causes. He secured a Scottish Government commitment to pardoning Scottish miners almost 40 years after the strike and is proud of working with the women who led the Scottish mesh medical campaign. It became clear to him though, that his continuing support for Jeremy Corbyn would leave him isolated within Scottish Labour. Could he have been more diplomatic and deft in supporting a man whom he still regards as a close friend?

“I was very proud to chair both Jeremy’s winning leadership election campaigns. His manifesto enthused so many people and gave them hope that things could really be different. We shouldn’t forget that from nowhere in 2017 Labour made a net gain of 30 seats, including six in Scotland and with 40% of the vote (its highest vote share since 2001 and its highest increase in vote share between two general elections since 1945).

“Basically, the establishment both inside and inside and outside the Labour party took fright and unleashed the hounds of hell on Jeremy and his policy programme and all who were associated with it.

“And everything they did to him they repeated with Richard Leonard: it was shameful. These were two honest, decent and compassionate people attacked and vilified by arrogant and self-entitled people who believed the Labour party was their personal property.

“Of course they made mistakes, but neither of them deserved the vile treatment, lies and character assassinations. The people responsible should be utterly ashamed and sadly, a number now hold leading positions in the UK and Scottish party.”

Following her resignation as First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon said she was surprised at how polarised and bitter Scottish politics had recently become. Findlay is scornful of her comments. “What planet has she been living on? Scottish politics is dreadfully polarised and she has been a key player in it as have the other main political parties on both sides of the constitutional debate.

“None of them are even attempting to drop the strategy that believes as long as you get one more vote than the other side then that’s all that matters. Where is the attempt to bring people together and find out where the majority of the population is?

“I lost count of how often I was targeted by Sturgeon or one of her ministers for not really caring about what I was speaking up about, such as the Covid care home scandal; the drugs deaths crisis and the NHS.

“My mum and brother were in care homes, while my wife and daughter are frontline NHS workers. What right had they to question my sincerity and the seriousness of the questions I asked? I was asking difficult questions, holding her and them to account. That was my job. It was her arrogant belief that she was always right that would inevitably be her downfall. And so it has proved.”

Yet, nor does he retain any great affection for Labour’s UK leader, Sir Keir Starmer. “I dealt with him during the Brexit process when he and I were party spokespersons. He had an impressive grasp of the issues and knew his stuff but he lied to party members when he was elected leader. There simply isn’t any other way to describe it. He made ten pledges on a range of issues and people fell for it. Now, almost all of them have been binned. It’s been nothing short of deceitful.”

He doubts there can ever be a place for Socialists in Starmer’s Labour Party, but says he has to believe it can still move hearts and minds in the movement and that it will make a comeback. “Look, you must always believe that tomorrow can always be better than today or you wouldn’t get out of bed.

“We are in a period where the left is in retreat but we have seen this happen before in history and we have come back. It will happen again. The idea of Socialism: collective action for the common good; building a decent, compassionate, caring society for the many and not the few – will outlast all leaders no matter how much they try to bury it.

Findlay is also optimistic about the prospect of Labour regaining power in Scotland as the SNP collapses around itself. But only if they produce what he describes as “a credible position on the constitution”.

“Scottish Labour is capable of producing a transformative manifesto that sets out to rebuild our public services from the mess we see now. The glue that holds society together is being picked apart by criminal underfunding and waste, cuts, privatisation, neglect and mismanagement. But with no credible constitutional position half the country has little interest in even beginning to listen to Labour’s plans.”

Neil Findlay’s book Hope & Despair is published by Luath. It’s available from the usual outlets or neilfindlaybooks.com