Scottish Labour Leader Quits; Scramble to Replace Her Begins

by Dave Keating | June 29, 2008 at 11:19 pm

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Wendy Alexander, the Scottish Labour leader who ran into some trouble over campaign contributions last week, has resigned. The Labour Party in the UK is now scrambling to find a successor for her, but it will be an uphill battle. Some are saying that the by-election in her district, Glasgow, will be the final stand for Gordon Brown, the UK Labour prim minister who is Scottish. If he can't win there, it may be the last straw.

Scottish Labour faces a bleak outlook as it searches for a successor to Wendy Alexander, who has thrown the party into turmoil by resigning after only nine months as its leader at Holyrood.

Ms Alexander was regularly out-manoeuvered in debate by Alex Salmond, the ebullient first minister and leader of the Scottish National party. Salmond had narrowly ousted Labour from power last year to form a minority government.

But there has been no real change in the two factors that led to her unopposed selection last year: firstly, she had the full backing of Gordon Brown, and secondly the lack of an obvious alternative.

Having watched his protégé crash so spectacularly after a row over campaign contributions, the prime minister is not expected to offer any candidate his explicit endorsement this time.