THE Scottish Labour leadership race has already been plagued by accusations of a “stitch up” and "misogyny".
In a post on social media on Sunday morning, Glasgow MSP Monica Lennon – who is the only woman to have put herself forward after Anas Sarwar’s resignation – hit out at unnamed figures within her own party, alleging that “men expect a coronation or a ballot without women”.
Michael Marra – a close ally of Sarwar – is seen as the frontrunner and is alleged to have the party “machinery” behind him.
Joe Fagan, a new MSP who formerly led South Lanarkshire Council, has also entered the race and reportedly has the support of Scottish Labour grandee Jackie Baillie.
Lennon, meanwhile, is reportedly finding it difficult to even secure the required number of MPs and MSPs to stand – with accusations that Marra’s team are trying to keep her off the ballot.
There have been reports and claims that Lennon’s more outwardly pro-trans views – she backed the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill in 2022 and signed a cross-party call against the Holyrood’s trans toilet ruling last year – may also be a barrier.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland on Monday morning, prominent Scottish Labour member Duncan Hothersall also claimed that the trans debate is impacting Lennon’s chances.
“It does seem that there is some backroom work trying to keep Monica out and part of the issue here is that it’s not just the traditional Scottish Labour split between the centre and the left,” he said.
“There are other splits as well. There is a big split over trans rights which splits both sides of the party. Monica would be a champion for LGBT rights alongside women’s rights. Michael is very aligned with the gender critical part of the party. So, there are these dividing lines that are having an effect on Monica which don’t have an effect on Michael because he has that establishment support.”
The Herald has reported that supporters of Katy Clark and Carol Mochan – who are both in the left caucus of the party together – are briefing against Lennon.
Notably, Mochan stood down as Labour’s spokesperson for drugs after voting against the GRR bill, and has been more vocally on the gender critical side of the party.
“The places where Monica would ordinarily look for support have gone,” a party insider told the newspaper.
“There is an assumption that Scottish Labour has gone to the anti-trans side. But I think that is really just the parliamentarians not the membership. It’s a real divide.”
In February 2025, Scottish Labour members explicitly rejected a motion – which had the backing of the party leadership – supporting the imposition of “single-sex spaces … based on biology” in Scottish schools.
However, in the manifesto earlier this year for the Holyrood election – drafted by leadership contest rival and apparent frontrunner Michael Marra – the party instead gave a full commitment to deliver “single-sex spaces on the basis of biological sex, in NHS wards, schools, sport and everyday life”.
It is a marked shift for the party in just a matter of years – a shift that Lennon doesn’t appear to have joined personally.
Not everyone feels it is playing a role, however.
The National spoke with a senior source who claimed that the trans debate has nothing to do with any lack of support for Lennon, but more that many of the party’s more socialist membership felt that Clark – who is reported to have floated her name as a potential contender last week – felt she could build a “broader coalition” than Lennon, who they said is “more marmite”.
Another source said that it is possible that Lennon’s pro-trans views “might have played into it” but added that she just “isn’t that popular” with the party’s MSPs.
Regardless, it is a leadership contest that has certainly opened up political, factional and perhaps – at times – personal divides in a party reeling after a historically poor Holyrood election result.
