Susan Dalgety: Is Dan the man to lead Scottish Labour into future after Sarwar?
Could Edinburgh MSP Daniel Johnson be the next leader of Scottish Labour? Following Anas Sarwar’s surprise elevation to the House of Lords and a job as trade minister in Andy Burnham’s new government, there is a vacancy at the top of the party and Johnson’s name is in the frame.
He’s not the front-runner by any means. That honour goes to Dundee MSP Michael Marra, with Monica Lennon nipping at his heels.
Lennon lost her seat in May’s Holyrood elections, but thanks to the byzantine rules of the Scottish Parliament’s voting process, she will be handed Anas Sarwar’s seat as she was number four on the Glasgow regional list.
Confused? Don’t worry, most of us are by a system that rewards electoral failure.
There is some debate as to whether Monica Lennon will be sworn in as an MSP in time to stand in the leadership election. She will not get her feet under her new (old) desk until the first week in September, by which time the battle could be well underway.
But I am confident that the party’s ruling body, the grand sounding Scottish Executive Committee, will find a way to let her enter the race.
There are a couple of other names in the frame, including Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney and Joe Fagan, a close colleague of the current deputy leader, Jackie Baillie. And our Daniel of course.
Johnson has served the good people of Edinburgh South, now Southern, for a decade. He is one of only three Labour MSPs to have won a first-past-the-post constituency seat earlier this year, which reflects his standing in the city.
His family firm includes city retail institutions Paper Tiger and Studio One, and he was educated at Stewart’s Melville College. He is as Edinburgh as Princes Street, but in considerably better condition.
His business background means he is well-suited as Scottish Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy, Tourism and Transport, but does this polite, hard-working, archetypal Edinburgh middle-class man have what it takes to lead the people’s party, particularly as it teeters on the edge of irrelevance? I doubt it.
The next leader of Scottish Labour will need a killer instinct as the party struggles to make itself relevant again, and I am not quite sure Edinburgh Southern’s MSP has got what it takes. But do any of the contenders?
While the party indulges in yet another leadership contest, there is a serious local challenge looming – the fight for control of Edinburgh City Council.
Under Jane Meagher’s low-key but effective leadership, Labour has proved itself a capable minority administration. But the SNP and Scottish Greens must be confident of winning just enough support next year to take control of the Capital.
The two by-elections on September 3, in the Southside/ Newington and Portobello/ Craigmillar wards, will be an early indication of each party’s prospects in the 2027 council elections, which are only 10 months away.
For Edinburgh’s sake, I hope Labour, with the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, manage to stop an SNP-Scottish Greens coalition next May.
The spectre of the Scottish Greens, aided and abetted by the Nationalists, running our capital city is simply too awful to contemplate.