All eyes have been on the Labour party this week as the Scottish Labour leadership battle continues even though some of the actors travelled to Brighton for the UK party’s annual conference.
At last week’s First Minister’s Questions, Alex Rowley was accused of dropping leadership candidate Anas Sarwar in it when he accused the SNP of siding “with the millionaires rather than the millions” in relation to a review of income tax, at odds with current party norm of “for the many, not the few”. This followed Mr Sarwar’s declaration of his multi-million pound shareholding in his family retail firm. Despite claims of neutrality, the interim party leader was also overheard expressing his support for the Left-favourite candidate Richard Leonard MSP at a fringe meeting in Brighton this week, kicking off a series of internal squabbles relating to Kezia Dugdale’s departure and speculation that the current leadership contest is a fix.
Despite the ongoing battle Jeremy Corbyn publicly thanked both Kezia Dugdale and Alex Rowley for their leadership in Scotland which saw the party take back seats in June’s general election.
At this week’s FMQ’s Alex Rowley’s slip at conference was jokingly raised by MSPs who asked him to ensure his mic was on. Brushing aside these quips, Rowley called on the Scottish Government to implement private sector rent control and do more to tackle fuel poverty. Patrick Harvie also sent a warning shot across the First Minister’s bow by saying that his party would withdraw support from the minority SNP government unless it dropped plans to abolish Air Passenger Duty on flights leaving Scotland.
Turning attention to parliamentary business, the Housing Minister provided an update to the Local Government and Communities Committee on the Scottish Government actions on building regulations and fire safety since the Grenfell disaster. In a much publicised committee meeting last week, MSPs were told by the head of building control in Glasgow that the authority had failed to inform a special working group on fire safety on its audit of privately owned high rise buildings in relation to any use of ACM cladding. The only local authority not to provide the requested information.
In a series of letters between the Committee and the Housing Minister, Kevin Stewart, Glasgow City Council’s building control department was effectively hung out to dry. The council is due to report by the end of this week on whether any private sector high rise dwellings use cladding unsuitably. The Housing Minister also announced two new working groups that will tackle enforcement and fire safety in relation to Scottish building regulations.
Finally, Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leadership hopeful, led a backbench debate on worker ownership of business. He took the opportunity to highlight some of the messages from Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech, where he asked business to become more accountable to the public. Mr Leonard said that we are witnessing a centralisation of power, “too much power in too few hands” and said it’s time to put ownership in workers’ hands.
Attention will soon turn towards the SNP conference, which will take place next weekend at Glasgow’s SECC. The First Minister is expected to focus on the SNP’s response to domestic challenges and the Brexit negotiations. As the party faithful gather for the first time since the General Election and the First Minister’s decision to park IndyRef2, the debate and mood will likely focus on how the SNP can navigate Scotland through this period of uncertainty, regain momentum on their agenda and influence the Brexit process.