by René Lavanchy

TOM McCabe, the Labour MSP and former Scottish finance minister, has told Tribune that the next leader of Scottish Labour needs to stop ringing up London to have his policies vetted.

Mr McCabe caused controversy this week after he wrote a newspaper article calling for a more powerful leader and attacking Scottish MPs and councillors for being “arrogant” and “contemptuous” of the Scottish Parliament.

The intervention comes as Scottish Labour prepares to choose one of three candidates to replace Wendy Alexander, who resigned in June.

Writing in the Sunday Herald, Mr McCabe said: “Whoever takes over as leader of the Scottish Labour Party has to be in complete control of the organisation and policies that best suit Scottish circumstances in the political climate created by devolution.”

He added: “For too long, there have been Scottish Labour politicians at local government level and at Westminster who have been resentful, and even contemptuous, of the Scottish parliament.” He also called for a rethink of council tax, which the Scottish National Party has promised to abolish.

While former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish endorsed his comments, several MPs and councillors have publicly disagreed. Glasgow MP John Robertson said: ““It was unfortunate. He’s out of the loop these days. He doesn’t know what’s going on, particularly the amount of meetings the MP, MSPs and councillors have had.”

“All [Labour at Holyrood] needs is a good strong leader. They’ve only been in two years and left for whatever reason. There’s nobody you can say, ‘that’s Scottish Labour in parliament’. Who’s in charge? There’s no one been in there long enough”.

But Mr McCabe defended his comments: “I was in a cabinet meeting when Jack McConnell had to phone London to make sure anything he was saying wasn’t upsetting people too much. The SNP are seen as talking to Scotland where the Labour leadership are taking into account other considerations.”

Jim Coleman, Labour deputy leader of Glasgow council, agreed that the next leader needed more freedom: “I think under certain circumstances there was undue pressure put on… I think Brown’s getting the message that that style doesn’t work any more.” But the main problem was a lack of policies from the MSPs, he added.