In early July the Scottish Labour Party head office e-mailed members in Scotland to let them know that the Scottish Executive Committee had launched a review of the party’s campaign in last May’s Holyrood election.
Members were informed of the dates and times of eight regional meetings, but not where they would be, or even whether they would be in-person or online. Beyond that – nothing.
More detailed information about the review was subsequently provided last week by an article published on the LabourList website, based on a draft which had been leaked to LabourList.
Members will be given the opportunity to answer 26 questions covering five themes. But the questions and themes can simply be summed up as: Why did we lose, and what can we do to avoid it happening again?
The use of set questions can be defended as a way of providing a focus for discussion. And some of the questions focus on real problems, such as how Scottish Labour should respond to the very different challenges posed by the rise of Reform and the Scottish Greens.
But these set questions also narrow down the topics for discussion.
No question is asked, for example, about the role of the Scottish Labour leader and deputy leader, Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie, in the election campaign: They had a job to do, they failed to do it, they should go.
The same applies to certain Scottish Labour staffers, who could best serve the party by following in the footsteps of Hollie Ridley, but without bothering to wait until September.
Although one of the questions provides openings in this direction, there is no specific question about the current state of Constituency Labour Party organisation in Scotland.
Right-wing control has intentionally killed off many CLPs. The result: when an election is held, there are no activists left to come out for doorknocking, and there is no record of local community campaigning to build upon.
There is certainly a need for a searching review of Scottish Labour’s miserable performance in May, which continued the party’s nearly 30-year-long tradition of doing worse in every Holyrood election than in the previous once
In May Scottish Labour won just 19% of the constituency vote and 16% of the regional vote, resulting in 17 MSPs – as many as Reform.
The pending inauguration of Burnham as Labour's Britain-wide leader has not seen a reversal of the Scottish party’s electoral fortunes. Scottish Labour’s share of the vote slumped still further in two Westminster by-elections held on 18 June. And in a South Lanarkshire council by-election last week, a Labour seat was lost to Reform.
There is therefore a pressing need for a full review of the current state of Scottish Labour. Scepticism about whether this review is a genuine attempt in that direction is justified. Even so, it is important that activists intervene in the review and make the case for socialist politics. §
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