Voters in Scotland are not listening to Labour because the party is neither unionist nor nationalist, one of its new MSPs has admitted.
Anas Sarwar, a former MP who was deputy leader north of the border from 2011 until 2014, insisted Kezia Dugdale did the “right things” in her election campaign, which finished with her party being relegated to third place behind the Tories.
But he admitted to the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland that Labour needs to “find a cause” that people will rally behind.
He said: “The truth is we are not comfortable nationalist and not comfortable unionists, which is difficult in a binary election.”
Mr Sarwar, who was elected as a Glasgow regional list MSP on Thursday and is likely to be part of Ms Dugdale’s shadow cabinet, added: “We have a fundamental challenge in Scotland where we don’t think people are listening to us just now.”
His comments are in a similar vein to the likes of Alex Rowley, the party’s current deputy leader in Scotland, who said Labour needs to revisit the question of “home rule” for Scotland, or federalism at UK level, in the wake of Thursday’s crushing defeat.
Such plans would see Holyrood have control over far more tax-raising areas, such as pensions or employment law.
