DOUGLAS Alexander has admitted that Labour has “misjudged” how popular the SNP are with voters following his party’s worst-ever Holyrood election results just three months ago.
The UK Scottish Secretary, who co-chaired Scottish Labour’s campaign to get Anas Sarwar elected first minister alongside deputy leader Jackie Baillie, said the SNP’s “lock” on a third of voters has made it “really hard” for his party to challenge them.
Alexander’s comments come after Scottish Labour returned just 17 MSPs to Holyrood in May, the lowest number from the party since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999.
Following Labour’s worst-ever Holyrood election result, Sarwar dramatically quit as the party’s leader in Scotland to join the House of Lords and take up a post in Andy Burnham’s UK Government.
Speaking at a recording of Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Alexander was quizzed on why he believes Labour has been unable to break through at Holyrood.
The Labour MP blamed the voting system used in the Scottish elections but also conceded that his party “misjudged” the SNP’s popularity, which saw John Swinney re-enter Bute House as Scotland’s First Minister.
“You have about 30% of the Scottish population who now see voting SNP as both a habit and an identity,” Alexander said.
“It is about who they are more than what the SNP do.”
He added: “One of the things that I think we misjudged in the May elections was assuming that because of the really poor governing outcomes that the SNP have had in recent years, that would have a dampening effect on their support and on their vote.
“The reality is, I think you need to have the humility if you’re opposing them to understand, in the Holyrood system, if you’ve got a lock on 30% of the population and the natural anti-SNP majority is then divided between a range of other parties, that makes it really hard and really challenging.”
Alexander’s comments come after Labour leadership hopeful Joe Fagan hit out at Sarwar for reducing the party to “commentators” after he jumped ship and joined Burnham’s UK Government.
Fagan has told his party it needs “to be bold, to be confident” in the wake of a “painful” Holyrood election defeat three months ago.
Fagan said he would take a different approach leading the party as he said he would be open to the prospect of Scottish Labour working with Swinney’s SNP Government in Holyrood budget negotiations.
In the last two years, Labour has abstained on budget votes in the Scottish Parliament, helping the minority SNP administration get its tax and spending proposals through.
Fagan said Labour “cannot reduce ourselves to being a party of commentators”, as he said he would seek to use budget talks to win “concessions” from the Scottish Government.
“For two budgets in a row, while other parties forced concessions from the SNP, we sat on the sidelines,” he said.
“It is time now for Scottish Labour to be bold, to be confident and to shape what happens next.
“If I am elected leader, we will take a different approach, and it starts with a serious offer to John Swinney and the SNP Government.”
