Scottish Labour leadership contenders have been urged to look into a dispute over campaign systems that left activists unable to use key election tools during the Holyrood election period.
Questions raised over access problems
The call follows The Herald’s report that Scottish Labour campaigners could not access two important election systems in the days after Anas Sarwar called for Keir Starmer to resign in February.
Just for Scotland, a Labour campaign group that wants greater organisational separation between the Scottish and UK parties, said the conflicting explanations from Scottish Labour and UK Labour needed further scrutiny.
Jack McConnel, of Just for Scotland, said the three candidates hoping to replace Sarwar should seek answers and consider ways to reduce Scottish Labour’s dependence on systems controlled by the UK party.
“There are still questions the UK Labour Party has to answer around this,” he said.
“If they don’t answer them urgently, then we need some sort of independent probe, and the Scottish Labour leadership contenders should investigate or take measures to reduce our risk.”
Systems at the centre of the row
Campaigners reported being unable to access Contact Creator, which is used to select voters for doorstep canvassing, and Organise, which allows Labour to mobilise members and coordinate campaigning.
Internal exchanges seen by The Herald showed Scottish Labour general secretary Kate Watson was aware of the problems by Wednesday, February 11, two days after Sarwar’s intervention against Starmer, and said she was “working to get this resolved”.
There is no evidence the access problems were imposed deliberately or were linked to Sarwar’s call for Starmer to resign.
But Scottish Labour and UK Labour have given different accounts of what happened.
Scottish Labour told The Herald it understood there had been a technical outage while both Contact Creator and Organise were being updated, and said it believed similar problems had affected users outside Scotland.
UK Labour confirmed Organise suffered a temporary UK-wide outage, but said Contact Creator remained in use and campaign work in Scotland and elsewhere could continue as normal. The UK party later said there had been no widespread outage of Contact Creator.
Leadership contest under way
Mr McConnel said questions remained over how many Scottish users were unable to access the system, when the problems began, how long they lasted and what caused them. He also said Labour should establish whether access for any Scottish users had been switched off.
“It certainly doesn’t pass the sniff test,” he said, when asked whether he was concerned by the timing of the problems.
“It reeks, particularly given there’s a contradiction in the positions of UK Labour and Scottish Labour.
“We need to calmly investigate the facts, and urgently investigate the facts.”
He added: “At the root of this is not the Starmer and Sarwar fallout.
“It is: can we take a different political position, or even a diametrically opposed political position, and still be equals? Or is this a relationship between a junior partner and a dominant party?”
The row comes as Scottish Labour members choose a new leader after the party’s defeat in May’s Holyrood election. Labour returned 17 MSPs, its lowest total since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999.
Lord Sarwar later quit as Scottish Labour leader and left Holyrood after taking a life peerage and becoming a trade minister in Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s UK Government.
Michael Marra, Joe Fagan and Monica Lennon are competing to succeed him.
Different views from candidates
Mr McConnel said the contest should prompt a wider debate about Scottish Labour’s relationship with the UK party.
“The Scottish leadership contenders have all talked about how there are structural challenges for Scottish Labour, but they have not said what they are, let alone come up with ideas for how to sort them,” he said.
“The relationship with the UK party must be questioned by the leadership contenders.
“The relationship with the UK party is making the news yet again and, yet again, for the wrong reasons.
“We need structural answers to structural problems.
“There’s no way we can credibly say we can stand up for Scotland if we can’t even stand up for ourselves.”
Joe Fagan played down claims the system issues had badly affected his own campaign. “I have to say, as a candidate recently, around the Glasgow election, it didn’t seem to interrupt or interfere with our campaign,” he told The Herald, adding, “This was something largely unnoticed by me at the time.”
He also rejected the idea of formally separating Scottish Labour from the UK party. “I don’t think that’s a viable way forward,” Mr Fagan said.
Michael Marra’s team said he does not support a separate Scottish Labour Party and was not aware of the internal system issues. A spokesperson said: “Michael wasn’t aware of these issues as he had no role in the central campaign, nor did he get any advance notice around Anas’ call for Keir Starmer to resign. Michael doesn’t support a separate Scottish Labour Party but would work to reset the relationship between Scottish and UK Labour and draw on all the talents within the party to renew it and reconnect with Scotland.”
Monica Lennon has been contacted for comment.
Mr McConnel said the debate should not stop at whether the Scottish and UK parties formally split, but should focus on how much political and organisational autonomy Scottish Labour has from London.
“Brushing this under the carpet and pretending there’s not a problem will just represent a status quo approach,” he said.