Andy Burnham should back a review into Scottish Labour’s election defeat, Jack McConnell has said.
Lord McConnell, the last Labour first minister, said an in-depth analysis of “what went wrong” for the party is needed following its worst-ever Holyrood result.
He also urged the incoming prime minister to scrap the “ridiculous” Scotland Office.
While Scottish Labour said a review led by its Scottish Executive Committee is under way, Lord McConnell said a “proper review” is needed.
He told Holyrood magazine: “There’s no evidence so far that a proper review is going on with what went wrong in the election campaign, and I think unless you have a proper review, things get worse instead of better.
“I would go back to 2007 where there was never an open and extended debate on why we had lost, I think, because we only lost by half a per cent.
“People thought, ‘well, if you change the leader and we have some new people in place, it’ll all swing back again’, instead of saying, ‘we’ve got some time here in opposition to have a debate, to open up’, and when you do that, you end up with, I think, ultimately with better ideas and a way forward.
“I’ve always thought that the 2011 election result in Scotland was partly a direct result of not having an open debate in the party between 2007 and 2011.”
Lord McConnell said current Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar “should be calling for that kind of detailed review” into what went wrong for the party in May this year.
“I think Andy [Burnham] should be saying there needs to be that and that he wants to hear the results of that review of the evidence,” he added.
“Obviously, political parties are different from the way they used to operate but I do think that politics is stronger when people have had to test their ideas, examine what’s gone wrong, and then debate the way ahead, and I think to continually just change leaders and demand loyalty without having that debate doesn’t work.
“It just does not work.”
Lord McConnell appeared to back Mr Sarwar staying on as Scottish Labour leader, saying: “If he feels that he still has a contribution to make, and that he can be part of that recovery, supporting those MPs and the work that they are doing, then I think people would respect that choice.”
The former first minister also told Holyrood magazine the Scotland Office should be scrapped.
He said: “I think it’s ridiculous that we still have a Scotland Office and a Wales Office.
“I would scrap them and put the three territorial national offices inside a big Department of the Nations and Regions with a powerful leader who has got the regular ear of the prime minister and is a leader within the cabinet.
“I think big structural changes need to be made, but I also think that in terms of the operation of government we need to refresh the understanding and intelligence around the devolved nations, and that’s partly about advisers who can make those links, but it’s also about civil servants.
“For example, I think regular exchanges of civil servants between Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and London would go some way to help, but I would insist on anybody who wants to be a senior civil servant having to spend some of their career on secondment in other areas of the country, and that would be true in Edinburgh as much as in London.
“So if anybody ever wants to be a director or higher in the Scottish Government, they should go and do a wee bit of seconded time in London, and the other way around as well.
“If anybody wants to be a perm sec or a director or whatever in the UK Government, spend some time with one of the devolved governments and just get the whole system to knit together better and get to understand each other better.”
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