HE'S faced stinging criticism from the GMB union. Kezia Dugdale has slammed him ahead of his party conference. Scottish Labour are sinking in the polls. In summary, Richard Leonard isn't a very popular man right now.
There are a substantial group of Labour voters who aren't criticising his leadership, though, so he could take heart in that ... if the reason wasn't so embarrassing.
Because, in fact, a staggering amount of Scottish Labour voters quite simply don't even know who their branch office leader is.
A new Panelbase poll, published by Wings Over Scotland, brings more bad news for Leonard – on a day when his party found out it was trailing the SNP by 15% in Holyrood polling.
The research asked their voters: "Who is the current leader of the Scottish Labour Party?"
The results were:
- Richard Leonard – 37%
- Jeremy Corbyn – 16%
- Kezia Dugdale – 15%
- Ian Murray – 1%
- Anas Sarwar – 1%
- Neil Findlay – 1%
- Monica Lennon – <1%
- James Kelly – <1%
- Alan Syme – 0
- Jackie Baillie – 0
- Don't know – 27%
More than a third of Scottish Labour's own voters couldn't name its leader.
It was bad enough earlier this week when his anonymity was highlighted on a game show ... but he's reached another level now.
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse for Richard Leonard. This is from #tippingpoint 😱 pic.twitter.com/sA8tVn8ChR
— Paul Hutcheon (@paulhutcheon) March 6, 2019
Even when presented with a list of names, more than a quarter of 2017 Scottish Labour voters couldn't pick him out, Wings confirmed.
(And if you don't know who Alan Syme is, fear not – that was a made-up name.)
Our congratulations to the 16% who chose Jeremy Corbyn though, given that he is the actual leader of Scottish Labour.
The party's conference starts in Dundee tomorrow. Last year, Brexit was the massive elephant in the room.
Will Leonard be able to avoid it once again, or are we in for more fireworks?
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