Talk:2014 Scottish Labour leadership election

Potential source
Below is a source that appears to give some useful background to this topic:



Sadly, I can only read the first few lines because I used up my three articles for the month (including a reader's letter, which their paywall software counts as an article apparently), but I post it here for anyone else who wants to work on this topic, who should be able to view the whole thing as long as they've clicked on nothing before. This is Paul (talk) 21:15, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Profiles ready to go in article
Jim Murphy, a former President of the National Union of Students, was first elected to the House of Commons as the MP for Eastwood at the 1997 general election. After junior roles he was appointed as Secretary of State for Scotland in 2008. He became Shadow Defence Secretary after the 2010 general election, before moving to International Development in 2013. In 2011 he co-chaired the Murphy–Boyack review into the structure of the Scottish Labour Party, and became a prominent figure in the Better Together campaign during the 2014 referendum when he toured 100 towns in 100 days to campaign for a No vote.

Sarah Boyack was elected as the MSP for Edinburgh Central at the Scottish Parliament's inaugural election of 1999, and served in both the Dewar and McLeish governments, where she was Environment Minister and later Transport Minister. When McConnell succeeded McLeish in 2001 she lost the Transport brief in a cabinet reshuffle and became a backbencher. After subsequently chairing the Parliament's Environmental and Rural Affairs Committee, she briefly returned to government prior to Labour's defeat at the 2007 election. She lost her Edinburgh seat in 2011, but was elected as a list MSP for the Lothian region at the same election. As well as co-chairing the Murphy–Boyack review, she served as a member of Labour's Devolution Commission in 2013.

Neil Findlay was elected to Holyrood as a list MSP for Lothian in 2011, having previously been a councillor in West Lothian. Subsequently appointed as Shadow Health Minister, he was also a member of the Red Paper Collective, a group of politicians that called on Labour to support the full devolution of income tax tro Scotland.

Candidate bios
I think a quick resume of each candidate adds to the quality of the article, but am not sure if I've put them in the right section. Currently they're under "Candidates and campaign", although I'll probably split them into a separate "Candidates" as this would need quick profiles of Dugdale and Clark. Any thoughts on this would be welcome. Thanks, This is Paul (talk) 23:57, 11 November 2014 (UTC)

Who backed who?
Sarah Boyack:
 * MSPs: Claudia Beamish, Sarah Boyack, Malcolm Chisholm, Rhoda Grant, Lewis MacDonald, Margaret McDougall, David Stewart
 * MPs: Sheila Gilmore, Mark Lazarowicz, Sandra Osborne

Neil Findlay
 * MSPs: Jayne Baxter, Neil Findlay, Cara Hilton, Elaine Murray, Alex Rowley, Elaine Smith
 * MPs: Katy Clark, Michael Connarty, Ian Davidson, Cathy Jamieson, Graeme Morrice, Jim Sheridan

'''Jim Murphy
 * MSPs: Jackie Baillie, Claire Baker, Richard Baker, Neil Bibby, Iain Gray, Mark Griffin, James Kelly, Hanzala Malik, Jenny Marra, Margaret McCulloch, Michael McMahon, Siobhan McMahon, Anne McTaggart, Ken Macintosh, Graeme Pearson, John Pentland, Richard Simpson
 * MPs: Douglas Alexander, William Bain, Gordon Banks, Anne Begg, Russell Brown, Tom Clarke, Alistair Darling, Thomas Docherty, Brian Donohoe, Frank Doran, Gemma Doyle, Tom Greatrex, David Hamilton, Tom Harris, Michael McCann, Greg McClymont, Jim McGovern, Anne McGuire, Iain McKenzie, Ian Murray, Pamela Nash, Fiona O'Donnell, John Robertson, Frank Roy
 * MEPs: David Martin, Catherine Stihler

Katy Clark
 * MSPs: Neil Findlay, Margaret McDougall, Elaine Smith
 * MPs: Katy Clark, Michael Connarty, Ian Davidson, Brian Donohoe, Tom Harris, Iain McKenzie, Graeme Morrice, Jim Sheridan

Kezia Dugdale
 * MSPs: Jackie Baillie, Claire Baker, Richard Baker, Jayne Baxter, Neil Bibby, Malcolm Chisholm, Rhoda Grant, Iain Gray, Mark Griffin, Cara Hilton, James Kelly, Ken Macintosh, Hanzala Malik, Jenny Marra, Margaret McCulloch, Michael McMahon, Siobhan McMahon, Duncan McNeil, Anne McTaggart, Elaine Murray, Graeme Pearson, John Pentland, Alex Rowley, Richard Simpson, Drew Smith, David Stewart
 * MPs: Douglas Alexander, William Bain, Gordon Banks, Anne Begg, Russell Brown, Alistair Darling, Frank Doran, Gemma Doyle, Sheila Gilmore, Tom Greatrex, David Hamilton, Jimmy Hood, Mark Lazarowicz, Michael McCann, Greg McClymont, Jim McGovern, Anne McGuire, Ian Murray, Pamela Nash, Fiona O'Donnell, Sandra Osborne, John Robertson, Frank Roy
 * MEPs: David Martin, Catherine Stihler

Sources:

Note: The BBC list is incomplete.

Copy edit in progress
I am embarking on a copy edit of this article, as requested on the Guild of Copy Editors requests page. It may take a couple of days, during which time there may be some inconsistencies in the article's prose. If you could wait until I am done to revert individual changes, I would appreciate it.

I may inadvertently, through my own ignorance of the differences between them, change British English usage to strictly US English usage. If I do so, please make a note here or change the article accordingly. Thanks. – Jonesey95 (talk) 06:08, 16 March 2015 (UTC)


 * A thought as I go through the article: The "Resignations" section is too gossipy and has excessive detail. It reads more as tabloid journalism than an encyclopedia entry. It is about 650 words now. It would be better if it were about 250 words, I believe. If anyone here wants to trim out the he said / she said bickering and reduce it to the basic facts, I'll be happy to copy-edit the resulting text. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:01, 16 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I'll take a look tomorrow, but at a quick glance I think paragraph two could largely disappear without too much fuss. Further than that, Lamont had a lot to say about her thoughts on the state of the party at the time of her resignation, but I'm not sure how much of it is really relevant in an encyclopedic sense. I did run this through PR, but articles on politics don't seem to attract much interest there. This is Paul (talk) 23:29, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

ok, so I've had a read through it and taken out some of what could be considered the more gossipy stuff. Hopefully I haven't gone too far. :) This is Paul (talk) 12:57, 17 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I found the "Controversy" section rather gossipy as well. I'm sure this all played very well in the tabloids, but is it being given undue weight? Did any of this adolescent nonsense influence the outcome of the election? If so, leave in the relevant bits. If not, I recommend giving it the old heave-ho. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:33, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

My copy edit is complete. Thank you for your patience. Now please go and fix all of the Americanisms I inadvertently slipped into the article. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:42, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

Resignations
Posting original version here for quick referencing purposes. This is Paul (talk) 12:50, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Lamont's resignation as Labour leader was reported by media outlets on the evening of 24 October 2014, following the publication of an interview with the Daily Record in which she announced her intention to step down immediately. She told the newspaper that she was resigning because Labour's Westminster leadership had undermined her attempts to reform the party in Scotland, and had treated Scottish Labour "like a branch office of London". She described some London-based colleagues as "dinosaurs" unable to understand that "Scotland has changed forever" following the referendum. Lamont also said that she was angry that she had not been consulted on some matters, such as a decision by the UK leadership to replace Ian Price as Scottish Labour's General Secretary. In her letter of resignation, submitted to Scottish Labour Party Chairman Jamie Glackin, Lamont accused "senior members of the party" of questioning her role and said that she was taking herself "out of the equation" to allow Scottish Labour to have a discussion about the best way forward. Anas Sarwar became Labour's acting leader. On 26 October, following a meeting of the party's executive committee, he outlined the details of the leadership election. It was confirmed the next day that Jackie Baillie would represent Labour in the Scottish Parliament at the following session of First Minister's Questions.

Following Lamont's announcement, Miliband paid tribute to her, saying that she had "led the Scottish Labour Party with determination". McLeish and McConnell both indicated that Lamont's sudden departure following weeks of speculation could have negative implications for Miliband's leadership. McLeish said that Miliband's chance of becoming Prime Minister could decrease if Labour returned fewer Scottish MPs in 2015, something he called a problem of "historic, epic proportions", while McConnell said that he was "very, very angry" and suggested that Miliband had questions to answer about the circumstances surrounding the resignation. Salmond echoed the views of his predecessor, arguing that Miliband "should be answering questions about why Labour in Scotland is run as an extension of his Westminster office, and why he has effectively forced the resignation of a Labour leader in Scotland". Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor, rejected Lamont's claims about UK Labour's treatment of its Scottish counterpart. Senior Labour politician Ian Davidson, the MP for Glasgow South, claimed that supporters of Murphy, who subsequently announced his intention to stand in the leadership contest to succeed Lamont, had conducted a whispering campaign against her. He further suggested that those on the right of the party had resented her election as leader and ignored her, treating her as a "wee lassie".

On 30 October, an IPSOS/Mori poll conducted for STV indicated that the SNP had much greater support among Scottish voters than Labour, putting the SNP at 52 percent, compared to 23 percent for Labour. On the same day, a YouGov poll conducted for The Times gave the two parties 43 and 27 percent respectively. The BBC's Mark Mardell later noted that a total of four polls in October and November gave the SNP an average 20-percentage-point lead over Labour, which he suggested could allow the SNP to win as many as 30 Westminster seats from Labour in the next election. At the same time, SNP membership reached more than 100,000, having increased fourfold since the referendum. Also on 30 October, Anas Sarwar announced his resignation as deputy leader at a Scottish Labour fundraising dinner in Glasgow, triggering a deputy leadership election. Sarwar said that he disagreed with Lamont's assessment of UK Labour, and that he was stepping down because he felt that it was "right that we have a concurrent leadership and deputy leadership election. This will allow a Scottish Labour party, its members and affiliates the opportunity to not only elect a leader, but a new leadership team focused on winning in 2016."

2015 general election
More notes. This is Paul (talk) 15:44, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

Murphy took the party into the 2015 United Kingdom general election, which saw a majority win for the Conservatives, and Labour's worst-ever election result in Scotland. There was a landslide shift towards the SNP, which took 56 of the 59 Scottish seats at Westminster, while Labour lost 40 of the 41 Westminster seats it was defending, including Murphy's constituency of East Renfrewshire. Other high-profile figures such as Curran, and Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander also lost their seats. Following his defeat, Murphy spoke of his intention to stand for a Holyrood seat in 2016. However, the result prompted Labour figures and those in the trade union movement to question the future of his leadership. Ian Davidson suggested it would be difficult for Murphy to remain as Scottish Labour leader without a parliamentary seat and in the wake of such a heavy defeat. Rafferty, and Kevin Lindsay of ASLEF, called for his resignation, while Findlay and Rowley resigned from Murphy's shadow cabinet.

After narrowly surviving a vote of no confidence by 17 votes to 14 at a party meeting in Glasgow on 16 May 2015, Murphy announced that he would step down as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in June. Stating that he wanted to have a successor in place by the summer, he confirmed that he would no longer be standing for a seat in the Scottish Parliament. Dugdale would assume the role of acting leader ahead of a new leadership election.