A good bit stuff
from the Huffpost that I had to share.
Labour was facing
major embarrassment today after it emerged that one of its current Shadow
Cabinet ministers had described its former MPs in Scotland as “f*cking useless”.
The revelation,
which is sure to be pounced on by the SNP, came from an academic who had
exclusive access to senior party figures for a new guide to the 2015 general
election. Philip Cowley, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of
London said that he’d asked about Labour’s disastrous performance north of the
border.
Prof Cowley, who
was co-author with Dennis Kavanagh of ‘The British General Election of 2015’,
told students at the book’s launch this week that he got a surprising reply
from the unnamed Labour MP.
“There was an
interview with a Shadow Cabinet member. This is a current, serving Shadow
Cabinet member, who told us the result in Scotland had an upside. “This was
after the election. And we naively said ‘how could it possibly have an upside?’
“And he said - and this is a direct quote - ‘well because it’s got rid of 40
fucking useless MPs”
Referring to the
recent Labour analysis of why the party lost the last election, Prof Cowley
joked: “You won’t find that in Margaret Beckett’s report.” Labour lost all but
one of its 41 seats in Scotland in May 2015, as the SNP scored one of the most
stunning political victories in living memory.
Nicola Sturgeon’s
Scottish National Party won 56 out of the 59 seats as voters flocked in record
numbers to her party’s message. Only Ian Murray, now Shadow Scotland Secretary,
was the only Labour MP to survive the SNP ‘tsunami’.
Among the
casualties were Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander, who was defeated by
Mhairi Black, and Shadow Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy, who lost his own 10,000
majority to the SNP.
The SNP’s Shadow
Commons Leader Pete Wishart pounced on the remarks, telling HuffPost UK:
‘’Labour’s election disaster in Scotland was inevitable following their toxic
campaign alliance with the Tories in the referendum and their extraordinary
support for George Osborne’s austerity and cuts - hitting families and communities
hard.
“They let the
people of Scotland down again and again. Their woes continue – now finding
themselves locked in a battle for second place with the Tories for the Holyrood
elections.
“With their plans
to shift the burden of Tory austerity onto workers by hiking taxes on the low
paid being comprehensively rejected, their situation is only going to get
worse.’’ Other former ministers and shadow ministers who lost seats included
Cathy Jamieson, Gregg McClymont, Margaret Curran, Tom Harris and Tom Greatrex.
And among those who
lost was also Katy Clark, the left-wing MP who is now Jeremy Corbyn’s political
secretary. Buoyed by Mr Corbyn’s victory and the election of Scottish leader
Kezia Dugdale, the party has been trying to win back support.
But polls suggest
it will receive another drubbing in the coming Holyrood elections for the
Scottish Parliament in May, losing possibly all of its constituency seats. In-fighting
over Labour’s failures at the last election has seen some argue that the party
directed valuable resources in Scotland when it should have been defending
seats like that of Ed Balls and others in England.
Some Labour MPs are
pushing hard for a more distinctive English message for the party, with former
Shadow Education Secretary recently calling for a referendum on an English
Parliament, amid fears it will take years to recover in Scotland.
At the book launch
this week, Prof Cowley also revealed that Ed Miliband’s reaction to poor polls
presented by pollster Stan Greenberg was “Why do you have to be so negative?”
He said that the
Prime Minister had a very different approach to negative polls. “Compare that
with David Cameron’s reaction when presented with some really quite difficult
polling in 2011 on the NHS. Cameron scribbled on the memo: ‘Give me the right
language in speeches, and physically attack me - underlined - with the right
words before an interview. I will do what I am told’.”
Prof Cowley said
that some would see that remark as a sign of a shallow cynical politician. “For
me it’s a sign of a pro,” he said. “It’s a sign of someone prepared to listen
to expert advice. And maybe it’s one of the reasons that he will be Prime
Minister, by the time he leaves for something close to 10 years, and Ed
Miliband won’t be.” He added that in January 2011, Labour led by an average of
5% in opinion polls, but went on to lose the election by 7%. Labour are currently
behind by 8% points.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/02/12/40-scottish-labour-mps-we_n_9216594.html
No comments:
Post a Comment