Inside Track Labour Party conference special
Clockwise from top left: Ed Miliband with brother David before beating him in a high-profile Labour leadership contest; at Dunfermline Football Club’s East End Park; and meeting Iain McKenzie, Scotland’s newest MP, as he arrives at Westminster, following his win in the Inverclyde by-election
to the rest of the Labour Party, and as Leader, I am intensely relaxed about that. Donald Dewar and the other fathers of devolution set up the Scottish Parliament precisely to find Scottish solutions to Scottish problems. Devolution is at the heart of Labour’s vision for the UK, and difference is a cornerstone of devolution. But let us not forget that in many areas – like Scottish Labour’s smoking ban – Scotland has led the rest of the UK.
MR: Obviously, Jim Murphy has been conducting the party review in Scotland – how involved have you been in that with Jim and at what stage is it at?
EM: Jim Murphy and Sarah Boyack are chairing the review together and they are working on it as we speak. We have to learn the lessons of defeat, and we have to do so quickly. We have to understand why people in Scotland voted so differently for Holyrood, compared to Westminster just one year previously. I have asked Jim and Sarah to report back to me and to Iain Gray to take forward the necessary changes.
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www.holyrood.com 19 September 2011
MR: How did the result feel for you personally given it could have been seen as a first test of your leadership?
EM: I felt for the hard-working Labour candidates and MSPs who weren’t returned to serve, but that is the democratic system in which we live. Te worst thing the Scottish Labour Party could do now is nothing. Change is inevitable because there are things we should have done a decade ago that were glossed over at the time. Scottish Labour will change to win, and that will happen by strengthening the party and ensuring MPs and MSPs work more closely together.
MR: Salmond has said that the party should keep Iain Gray as the leader because he seems to have found a new lease of life unshackled from the responsibility of office. Is that a possible outcome of the review?
EM: Well, Iain has already said he is going to stand down in due course. He is a man of deep integrity, conviction and absolute honesty and I am sure his commitment to public service will
be expressed in other ways in the future.
MR: Do you think the Scottish Labour Party rules should be changed so that the leader in the Scottish Parliament is the leader of the party in Scotland?
EM: Sarah Boyack and Jim Murphy have been carrying out a review of the way the Scottish Labour Party organises itself. Just recently, it was announced that there would be, for the first time, an elected leader of the Scottish Labour Party. Tis change sits alongside some of the biggest changes to the Scottish Labour Party since devolution, and I’m excited about what we can do in the future.
MR: How do you explain Scotland’s close relationship with the Labour Party and do you think that the party possibly became complacent about that support?
EM: Tere are strong values at play in Labour’s approach to the problems people face – values rooted in fairness, solidarity, a strong community, and a sense of fair play. I have never
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