Richard Leonard
Scottish Labour’s shadow economy minister is close to members of Campaign for Socialism, a group aligned with the pro-Corbyn movement Momentum.
A former GMB political officer in Scotland, he was elected last year to the Scottish Parliament for the first time.
He is an MSP for Central Scotland and a member of Holyrood’s economy committee and also of the social security committee. Leonard, left, has also been involved in leftwing policy development co-editing the Red Papers, a series of essays by a collective of activists, trade unionists, academics and politicians seeking an “alternative” to the debate over independence or the union.
He was among senior figures in the party who warned the leadership about getting involved in the anti-independence Better Together campaign, amid rising concerns about Conservative involvement in the group.
A year before vote he cautioned: “When the Tories are attacking the poorest in society, it’s pretty difficult to sit with them and to argue for a progressive Scotland.”
Last month he was re-elected as the secretary of the Keir Hardie Society, an organisation established in 2010 to celebrate the life and keep alive the ideas of Labour’s first MP and leader.
Speaking at the Society’s AGM, the list MSP said:”Keir Hardie is one of Lanarkshire’s most famous sons. He first stood for election in the Mid Lanark by election of 1888 and was elected to Parliament four years later as the MP for West Ham South. So later this year we will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of his first election to Parliament.
“Less then two weeks ago, nearly 13 million people voted for a Labour manifesto committed to extending public ownership, ending the economics of austerity and shifting power back to working people. In February Leonard joined fellow MSPs Elaine Smith and Neil Findlay to defy Dugdale to vote in favour of the triggering of Article 50 to leave the EU.
Most Labour MSPs, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats voted against starting the Brexit legal process. By voting in favour of the move Leonard sided with Corbyn and against Dugdale.
Anas Sarwar
Sarwar, right, is the former deputy leader of Scottish Labour under Johann Lamont and is currently the party’s health spokesman.
A former dentist, who is the son of the former Labour MP Mohammed Sarwar, he lost his Westminster seat in the party’s disastrous 2015 General Election but was elected to Holyrood as a Glasgow MSP last year. Last week he organised a full-to-capacity event for UK party leader Jeremy Corbyn, attended by 800 people.
Prominent in the Better Together campaign he is strongly opposed to Scottish independence.
But he has won praise for speeches in Holyrood about the war in Syria, saying “humanity is dying before our eyes and the world looks on helpless”.
Sarwar, who has been criticised for sending his son to a private school, famously launched his political comeback in 2015 by booking out a 500-seater venue with an offer of free dinner to set out his vision for the party.
Guests at the Riverside Palace were treated to dinner at the restaurant on Glasgow’s south side which bills itself as “one of Scotland’s leading banqueting venues” and “boasts a high degree of elegance and grandeur”.
The move was a bid to ensure he was ranked top of the party’s Glasgow’s regional list, which would ensure his election to Holyrood.
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