Alex Rowley says Scottish Labour needs to move away from “attack style” of politics

A former member of Scottish Labour’s shadow cabinet has admitted the party needs to seize control of the agenda in Scotland or face further heartache at the polls.

Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath and an ally of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, helped hasten Jim Murphy’s imminent departure as Scottish Labour leader last week by quitting his role as Labour’s local government spokesman at Holyrood in the wake of the general election.

Now though, Mr Rowley insists Labour has to move forward as a united party and has outlined his vision for the future in a discussion paper circulated to local members.

Mr Rowley said he was “shocked at the sheer scale” of Labour’s defeat on May 7, but admitted the party appeared to have “bounced from focus group to focus group making policies up as we went along” since the disappointing Holyrood elections in 2011.

“The attack style of politics is not working, people have shut off not just from Labour’s approach but from Labour,” he said.