 Really big story developed overnight concerning the leader of the Scottish Labour Party Richard Leonard He's a member of the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood has huge implications for a number of reasons I'll talk about more why in a second Reported on by the Times very well I should add as well now the headline doesn't really give much away Richard Leonard resigns the Scottish Labour leader So what you're thinking well go down a few paragraphs and What's outlined here is a conference call involving senior party figures the party's only MP in Scotland Ian Murray the party's depth leader in Holyrood Jackie Bailey also on the right David Evans the secretary the general secretary Angela Rayner and various potential donors and Labour laws and It's claimed in this article That potential donors and this is a quote now who are understood to have said they would not back Labour While mr. Leonard remained in post so a stipulation was we will not give you money Until Richard Leonard leaves his position less than 24 hours Richard Leonard has gone Less than 24 hours later That's a bit of a coincidence particularly when you think it was only last September that Richard Leonard successfully saw away Effectively an attempt to get rid of him by members of the Scottish Labour Party by the party right So that was only three and a half months ago, and yet he's gone within 24 hours of a call Concerning a gentleman worth more than 200 million pound potential donors besides him Labour Lords and and the party leadership Seems a bit strange doesn't it now if you don't know much about Richard Leonard Which you probably don't if you don't live in Scotland in particular He was effectively a surprise winner in that Leadership race three years ago. I believe it was he was the favorite candidate of Jeremy Corbyn He was from the parties left and the right were very surprised that he won and effectively They've been trying to undermine him ever since he's not really had a fair crack of the whip But in any case Labour in Scotland are doing terribly Terribly You know they're gonna do very badly in May which makes this Resignation all the stranger, you know, I think I think many many people Expected Richard Leonard to go but after May and it certainly doesn't suit the parties Right doesn't suit the leadership that he goes now because they would have preferred him Taking the hit frankly and then getting their own people in after May So that makes this all the stranger and it's why I think there's probably some water here in this claim about a donor saying He has to leave and then him going now Yes, it's been hard for Labour and they're not doing particularly well But it's important to say this precedes Richard Leonard in the 2015 general election Of course Labour famously lost 40 of 41 Scottish seats They were left with one seat in Scotland a single seat, which is Ian Murray's seat Which is what they're at now today and of course in the interim they got seven seats in the 2017 general election We don't like to talk about that of course because Jeremy Corbyn was the Labour leader We don't like to talk about it in any case Labour have huge problems in Scotland. That's nothing you like I say It's been on the horizon really I would say for six years Although it's important to say the SNP have been a dominant force in Scottish Politics for the best part of a decade now, which is really impressive and to still be polling so high Anyway, I think this story has huge implications for a number of reasons You've got Kirsten Dahmer, you've got Angela Rainer and by the way the party leadership aren't saying this didn't happen You know, they're briefing various lines to journalists about how Angela Rainer was kind of Harried by various people. It was an ambush. So it took place and broadly speaking. There's a confirmation of these events Angela Rainer was you know treated very poorly She stood up for the leadership said it's up to the Scottish party whether or not Richard Leonard stays on Which is of course what she should be saying. She's alleged to say that by the way I've had that confirmed by two separate people, but who knows ultimately But here's the thing you have a bunch of people on a call donors who voted for them nobody Labor Lords who voted for them General secretary who voted for that and then you've got English politicians. Okay, there's Ian Murray. There's Jackie Bailey, too But fundamentally you've got English politicians Deciding whether or not a leader of the Scottish Labor Party should stay in his post You've got donors Determining whether an elected leader can stay in his post. You've got unelected Labor Lords Saying that an elected MSP isn't doing a job So there's a major problem there And I think particularly for those members of the Labor Party in Scotland who say and there's some great people up there Paul Sweeney who's running for elections later this year. He would say we need new constitutional settlement to give Scotland more power more devolution but to stay in the Union And I think that's the only way independence doesn't happen and I don't think labor are going to adopt that position But I think it's the only way it won't happen But how can you substantively say we want to give more power to Scots? But the UK Labor Party won't even give substantial autonomy to the Scottish Labor Party The leader of the Labor Party Westminster decides when the leader of the Scottish Labor Party has to go That's not good is it? I mean that tells you that's the first point I want to make here that the the Scottish Labor Party is in no way independent of the the Westminster Labor Party It should be but it certainly isn't now It certainly isn't when you've got a left-winger in charge in Scotland and you've got Keir Starmer down in London now Secondly, and this is an ancillary point, but I think it's hugely important is Are we now in a place with labor where donors decide who can and can't lead a political party? I mean, I think this is a really huge story Can you imagine if there was a multi-billionaire multi-millionaire said to the 1922 committee and for some reason the conservative party needs some money? Because they're broke never going to happen because they're the party of the 1% but let's just speculate here You have to get rid of Boris Johnson or you have to get rid of Theresa May or John Major, whoever And if you don't we're not going to give you money We won't fund you And then within 24 hours that that leader had left People would say wow that is not how democratic politics is meant to operate And yet that's precisely what's being alleged here in the Times Now it's important to say there's not been an official response about You know Richard Leonard's views here. He's not really gone into specifics Uh sources said the meeting had no bearing on mr. Leonard's decision Which was made by him alone and as I understand it he almost certainly wanted to leave But like I say it's so strange. He doesn't go in september and he goes within 24 hours of a call Where a man worth more than 200 million pound is on the call and donors are saying that money won't be going to the labor party unless Richard Leonard walks So that's the that's the second point our donors now effectively in charge of the labor party And where does it stop if they are if donors can determine Who is the leader of the Scottish Labor Party? Can they determine the party's policy on public ownership of water on tuition fees on the living wage? Can they work out the party's policy on broadband? You know, is this now, you know, the best democracy that money can buy? And what makes all the more tragic is actually under Jeremy Corbyn the labor party had plenty of money It had plenty of money. Why because it had this huge membership It had trade union money had a really Really sustainable revenue model, which he didn't have by the way 15 years ago The party was facing bankruptcy and now that problem is sort of reemerging because We think about 100,000 people have left and unions are salami slicing funding And of course the general economic context isn't great. So even if you're wealthy and you want to give money to labor There's not a general election of three and a half years Things are really tight. You're probably going to leave it. So labor have big problems in terms of money And so now we maybe face the situation where they've got to take out the begging bowl They did not have to do this. It's entirely of their own making and effectively Genuflects go down on one knee To people who can donate millions of pounds and even if it's not true that Lenard left because of this demand We know for a fact that Angela Reina was, you know, spoken to quite badly On this phone call that she was ambushed that basically people with money think they can push the labor leadership around Let's go to a clip now. This is from Neil Findley. Um A big figure on the labor left in Scotland And he was speaking late last night and the concluding remark he makes What he says I think is critical here. I think there's a number of things at play here Richard Leonard has been undermined from the very beginning of his leadership by People within the Labour Party within the parliamentary group of the Labour Party who could not accept that their Preferred candidate lost and they've thrown their toys out the pram from the beginning And they've indulged in some absolutely appalling behavior With a continual undermining of Richard and anyone or anything associated with him. It's been absolutely outrageous behavior And was the other people involved? Well, apparently Um, we we hear reports that there were other people involved and that Last night there was a meeting between Some senior people in the party in scotland and Westminster level With millionaire donors to the potential millionaire donors to the party Who said that they would only donate to the Labour Party if Richard Leonard resigned and that provoked I understand The intervention of the UK leader to get rid of Richard Leonard That's a big claim Kirstam at the behest of a donor Asked the Scottish Labour leader to leave So we have two problems. I was already highlighted The first is that you don't have real autonomy as Scottish Labour You're dictated to by Westminster highly the best message when most scots want to leave the union And secondly that happens because somebody says it has to happen Otherwise they won't donate money to the party now. That's not coming from me. You know, we're looking at multiple sources here I've heard things from people I've spoken to you have Neil Findley saying this and of course there's that times article And we just get back to the fact, you know, he sees a rare challenge two and a half months ago and yet within 24 hours of this call He's gone It doesn't add up Now I think Labour in Scotland is is toast. I think they have huge problems, but I think the optics of this in particular Are awful. They are awful You know Labour love to talk about the democracy and how the Tories and their mates Dolling out outsourcing contracts and how corrupt they are Labour's just potentially got rid of a leader in Scotland because the donor said they had to How's that any different? The difference is Labour aren't in power and the Tories are You know, there's that great saying about Two cheeks on the same ass or an Italian new set as a frittata. You turn one side up Down and then you get the you know, it's it's the same thing and Sadly with a story like this, that's how Labour look they look like the Tories They look like the Tories, but without the money and without the resources Very concerning and anyway, I'll finish with this. I was speaking to a Scottish labor activist earlier on this evening And he said the tragedy of this is that the the Labour right in Scotland will now Reassert control and they're exactly the people who brought us here in the first place And they've in no way had to engage with the fact that they were at the helm When the party lost 40 or 41 seats in in 2015 Because they were in his words Let me get this straight disillusioned And disenfranchised and the exact same Scottish Labour politicians are now Back in charge the people who were overseeing a politics where people felt disillusioned and disenfranchised A really really terrible indictment on Labour Even if it's not like I say the worst case scenario that they can be pushed around By donors and it doesn't bode well for anybody who thinks that the Labour party with this leadership Will deliver on anything not even resembling a radical policy a problem-solving policy If you're being pushed around by multimillionaires And telling elected politicians they have to go It's a terrible state for first