File this one under “embarrassing political videos.” In a BBC interview this morning, Ed Miliband was unable to name all of the candidates for the Scottish Labour leadership (he should have read The Staggers).He correctly identified Labour MP Tom Harris and MSP Johann Lamont, but then referred to “the third candidate who is putting himself forward”. The “third candidate” is Ken Macintosh, who, unfortunately for Miliband, is the bookies’ favourite to win the election.
Miliband’s gaffe is symptomatic of Labour’s complacent attitude towards Scotland. In a leader published before the Scottish election last May, the NS warned Miliband not to underestimate the SNP and argued that it was a profound mistake to treat the contest as a referendum on the Westminster coalition. As we predicted, Alex Salmond’s party went on to win a majority, an extraordinary feat given that the AMS voting system was adopted with the explicit intention of preventing any party from doing so.
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Since then, support for the SNP has continued to surge, with polls putting them on 49 per cent in Holyrood (to Labour’s 28 per cent) and 42 per cent in Westminster (to Labour’s 33 per cent). Salmond’s party has replaced Labour as the hegemonic force in Scottish politics. In the meantime, support for independence has reached its highest level for nearly three years, with 39 per cent of Scots in favour and 38 per cent opposed. For Labour, Scottish independence would be politically disastrous. It would deprive the party of 42 of its 256 Westminster seats in a single stroke.
For this reason, it is essential that Labour elects a leader capable of challenging Salmond, a brilliant politician and a formidable campaigner. How dispiriting then that Miliband appears so uninterested in the race.
Hat-tip: James Kirkup.