The Sunday Herald is today reporting calls for a leadership challenge in Scottish Labour to remove Kezia Dugdale and open the way for a clear-out of blairite officials, to allow the unhindered growth of the movement in Scotland:
The article quotes calls by the Scottish Labour Review (SLR) for a candidate to challenge and remove Dugdale – and push further:
As Scottish Left Review called for in its last editorial, Dugdale needs to be removed by a leadership challenge. The Labour left in Scotland must quickly find a candidate to do this.
Then Iain McNicol, current general secretary of British Labour, needs to be removed as does Brian Roy, current general secretary of Scottish Labour. “Control of Labour organization through these general secretaries prevents the Corbyn current washing through the rest of the Labour Party.
Absolutely. The clinging-on of right-wingers in Scotland – and Wales – remains a dead weight dragging on the advances the Labour Party has made in those nations, even more than than in England.
Ms Dugdale’s uninspiring persona and her arguable encouragement to voters in some marginal seats to vote Tory in June did inexcusable damage to the country. Labour’s 6 gains in Scotland because of the Corbyn surge would have been far more with a Scottish leader in tune with the UK leadership.
Not only that, but her role in hindering the UK-wide party by her undemocratic presence on the Labour National Executive Committee (NEC), where she is said to have consistently voted against the interests of the massively pro-Corbyn membership, makes her removal even more urgent.
But the SLR does not, apparently, name any potential candidates. That needs to be remedied urgently so that this becomes a contest, not merely a call.
A successful challenge in Scotland could be the trigger for moves in similarly-blighted Welsh Labour and – at last – for the long-awaited challenge to Tom Watson as deputy leader that would without question sweep away the Midlands MP.
And the vast majority of Labour members will breathe easier and fight more effectively for that.
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Not just ousted but expunged altogether.
As they say in Scotland: ‘Cheery-bye’.
for years the labour party mainstream have feared and called for a cull of so called left infiltration – but look closely and see the insurmountable numbers of right wing labour officials the labour right is always wrong – get rid of them all
Very good- but you didn’t mention McNichol and why he has joined Momentum (or why he was not prevented from doing so).
Hmm. STILL awaiting moderation?
McNicol? McTernan has joined and God only knows why he wasn’t rejected, but haven’t heard about McNicol
Thank you. Very good.Marie Lynam, camden momentum, individual initiative.
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Your joking ,when Labour are starting to gain in Scotland at last . People want an alternative and that’s not Blue Labour
Ideally, S-Lab and W-Lab will be able to find a Corbyn-like figure among their own ranks. Someone with decades of history in the Labour party and who’s always stuck to their principles.
Corbynism is a return to historical Labour values, its leadership must live and breath those values, not adopt them when expedient.
The Labour right’s psephological claptrap about needing to be in what they laughably term the ‘centre’ in order to win elections is doubly false in Scotland and Wales.
Come on Scotland. Come on Wales. Your Tory-lite leaders are holding UK Labour back. You know what you have to do.
Does anyone know of any suitable replacement for Kezia Dugdale and the rest of the motley crew whose main aim appears to be to remove their leader, Jeremy Corbyn who has made the Labour Party a force to be reckoned with.
The Labour Party has gained 15,000 members because of him.
The right-wing are bringing the LP into disrepute and the whole lot of them should be expelled.
One of the best things about JC is his support for democracy, even when it’s not in his best interest. These MPs were democratically elected so he’s unlikely to take action to remove them.
The Labour Right, aka the Blairites or as they now call themselves ‘The Moderates’, openly embraced Thatcherism and it’s destructive and corrosive agenda on all of the UK.
I find it very strange that Jeremy hasn’t asked I McNichol and Dugdale to go before they’re pushed.
I’d guess he hasn’t because, unlike those you mention, Jeremy *does* value democracy and the integrity of the process for its own sake.
Granted, those we most want rid of are precisely those who are rigging the system to keep themselves and their ilk in place.
I agree that the leadership should use all its influence to empower members and put an end to the sort of grubby chicanery that has characterised the Labour right during Jeremy’s time as leader. If McNicol, Dugdale and the rest were elected by OMOV, and subject to a workable ‘recall’ mechanism while in office, they’d be long gone by now.
If the leadership stands by, the right will never let control of the party slip through their fingers, they’ll simply make up the rules as they go along and exploit every ambiguity and loophole to their advantage, no matter how sordid. Almost nothing’s beneath them, their actions prove as much.
Personally, at least as far as the coup plotters like McNicol, Watson et al. are concerned, I want to seem them all dismissed in disgrace for their misconduct during the leadership challenge … rather than merely being voted out or quietly sidelined.
Along with those mentioned for replacement, there should also be a deputy leadership election to get some one who really will give their full backing to Jeremy Corbyn.