Labour looks to capitalise on a potential Scotland comeback

Could Nicola Sturgeon’s shock resignation propel Keir Starmer into Downing Street? Labour looks to capitalise on a potential Scotland comeback by hoovering up Left-leaning voters who quit the SNP

• Since 2015 election Labour has remained in political wilderness in Scotland
• Sturgeon’s departure may help Labour party win a majority and keys to No 10 
• Read more: Who will replace Nicola Sturgeon? Kate Forbes tipped as favourite

Labour were last night looking to capitalise on Nicola Sturgeon’s shock resignation hoping it would help Sir Keir Starmer reach Downing Street.

Since the 2015 general election, when it lost 40 of its 41 MPs north of the border, Labour has largely remained in the political wilderness in Scotland.

It won seven seats in the 2017 election, but this plummeted to one again in 2019 as Ms Sturgeon hoovered up Left-leaning voters trying to block a pro-Brexit Tory party from storming to victory in Westminster. Tory seats in Scotland fell from 13 in 2017 to six in 2019.

But Ms Sturgeon’s departure potentially leaves the door open for a Labour comeback in Scotland, helping the party win a majority and the keys to No 10 at the next election, likely to be in autumn next year.

One Labour MP with knowledge of the party’s Scottish strategy said: ‘There are some seats where the Tories are capable of a comeback, but Labour stands to be the biggest beneficiary given the number of seats where there’s been Labour representation historically.

abour were last night looking to capitalise on Nicola Sturgeon’s shock resignation hoping it would help Sir Keir Starmer reach Downing Street

Ms Sturgeon’s departure potentially leaves the door open for a Labour comeback in Scotland, helping the party win a majority and the keys to No 10 at the next election, likely to be in autumn next year

READ MORE HERE: Nicola Sturgeon faces the fury of nationalists over her botched push for Scottish independence while critics hope her gender identity reforms ‘go with her’ after she quits as First Minister (and SNP rivals tell her husband to go too)

 

‘The internal struggles of the SNP are making it almost unmanageable now for them to maintain the success that Sturgeon had and we’ll try and exploit that.

‘Sturgeon may be hoping she can defuse it by stepping down, but the SNP’s problems run much deeper.’ One message they may look to drive home, added the MP, was that voting in a Labour government in Westminster would be a quicker and easier way of toppling ‘hated’ Tory rule than trying to secure another independence referendum, win it and then apply to re-join the European Union.

Another Labour figure said: ‘We were already on the upward trajectory and [Scottish Labour leader] Anas Sarwar is seen as a credible insurgent and this helps hugely.’ A third senior party official told Politico: ‘Politics is about seizing your breakthrough moments. We intend to seize this.’

Sir Keir is due to give a speech at Scottish Labour’s annual conference on Sunday, when he will declare his party a government in waiting. Mr Sarwar and Ian Murray, the only Scottish Labour MP, will give speeches on Friday and Saturday.

Labour strategists are already excited about ‘high-calibre’ candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring for Scottish seats. Among them is Douglas Alexander, who held three cabinet positions under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and will stand in East Lothian.

He dramatically lost his Paisley and Renfrewshire seat to the SNP’s Mhairi Black at the 2015 election. At the weekend, when his candidacy was announced, Mr Alexander tweeted: ‘Change is coming to our country and I’m determined to play my part by winning East Lothian back for Scottish Labour.’

Kirsty McNeill, a former adviser to Mr Brown, will stand in the target seat of Midlothian. ‘We are going to work night and day to hear the magic words: Labout gain,’ she tweeted on Sunday.

A former chief executive of Save The Children, a former prominent political journalist and a heart surgeon are also among Labour’s list of selections. By the end of the year it hopes to have announced candidates for all of the 59 Westminster seats in Scotland, of which the SNP currently holds 45.

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