Scottish Labour's message is 'not being projected strongly enough', says McCluskey

Scottish Labour needs to do more to get its message across in Scotland, Len McCluskey has said.

The leader of the Unite union and close ally of Jeremy Corbyn condemned the Scottish party’s past decision making, claiming his warnings and advice to the former leadership had been “ignored” for years.

He said that the current party under Richard Leonard offers a “more radical” option but admitted that “the message is obviously not being projected strongly enough” to attract more voters from the SNP.

McCluskey also claimed that he would have voted in favour of independence if he had lived in Scotland in 2014 but said his mind was changed by Corbyn becoming Labour leader, who he predicted could beat Boris Johnson in a snap general election and give a “truly transformative” policy to the entire UK.

The trade unionist made his comments during an interview at the Edinburgh Fringe festival with radio broadcaster Iain Dale, who is hosting a series of interviews with politicians and media personalities.

McCluskey claimed his warnings about Scottish Labour’s declining popularity in the former “Labour stronghold” nation had been ignored for years by “right wing” leaders in Westminster and Holyrood, including Jim Murphy, who’s name McClusky forgot on stage.

He said: “I remember in 2007, when the SNP won seats in the East End of Glasgow, and we said (to the leadership) “do you not understand what’s happening up in Scotland?” and we were ignored.

“I remember in 2011 when the SNP won control of Holyrood – which was never supposed to happen, no party was supposed to be able to win a majority in Holyrood, but the SNP did, because the SNP were seen more and more as a radical social democratic party than Labour.”

McCluskey also said that the party’s decision to join the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in the Better Together campaign during the 2014 independence referendum as something from which they had never recovered.

He went on to say: “And who did we put in charge to step forward to control Scottish Labour to win back the Scottish working class?”

“Only…what’s his name?”

Both McCluskey and Dale had to be prompted by an audience member to remember the former Scottish Labour leader’s name.

“Jim Murphy. Fancy me forgetting Jim’s name”, McCluskey said.

Asked why Scottish Labour appear to be less popular than ever, even with Jeremy Corbyn  and Richard Leonard providing a more left wing leadership at both parliaments, McCluskey said it was down to the Scottish party’s failure to project its message as well as the SNP does.

Reflecting on the current state of the party in Scotland, he said: “the message is obviously not being projected strongly enough. But I don’t see any alternative to it.

“And you know the SNP are an interesting party.

“They had this radical edge under Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon is a consummate politician arguing from the left - but in local authorities they govern from the right.

“So we have to expose it and continue to put forward a radical plan.