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Scottish Labour’s new leader Michael Marra has backed the development of the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gasfields in the North Sea in one of his first acts after being elected, calling for a “more rational” approach to energy policy.
On Saturday, the MSP for North East Scotland won a near two-thirds majority to lead the party in Holyrood, becoming Scottish Labour’s 11th leader. He replaces Anas Sarwar after his shock decision to resign in July to join Andy Burnham’s new government as a trade minister.
Dundee-born Marra said he would urge the British prime minister to back both fossil fuel projects despite warnings over their environmental impact. Neither is covered by the ban on new licences for drilling in the North Sea because their applications were already in the system when the Labour government took power, and there is growing expectation that ministers will approve the Jackdaw gasfield in the coming weeks.
“I want Rosebank and Jackdaw to be approved,” Marra told reporters shortly after his election. “It’s the biggest issue in my region in terms of people’s voting intention. We need to have a more rational policy position that delivers for the Scottish economy and Scottish jobs.”
In his acceptance speech at the Dynamic Earth science museum in Edinburgh, Marra said he would spend time reconnecting with Scottish voters after a bruising defeat in this year’s elections.
“May hurt so much because we know the SNP didn’t deserve a fifth term in power. But the truth is Scotland didn’t think we would be much better,” he said.
“Scots know what we are against. They can’t tell you what we are for. And that vacuum was filled by the poison, racism and bigotry of Reform. We must be clear in our values. We must lead with our values,” he said.
“For a decade now, Scotland has gotten weaker. We must reconnect with the country if we are ever to form a government in Holyrood to face these historic challenges.”
Marra faces an uphill battle to reverse the party’s fortunes in Scotland. While 37 Labour MPs from Scotland sit in Westminster, the party has lost seats at every Holyrood election since devolution in 1999.
In May, the party suffered its worst ever results – winning just 17 seats as the SNP retained power. Labour has as many seats as Reform in Holyrood, just two more than the Scottish Green party and five more than the Conservatives.
In a subdued campaign with few policy differences between candidates, both Marra and his main rival, Joe Fagan, were criticised for struggling to outline the circumstances in which Scotland should be allowed a second independence referendum.
Marra said that he thought the party had become overly focused on middle-class voters in Scotland, and vowed to build a broader electoral coalition that was centred on the needs of the country.
When asked again about the level of public support that would mean Scotland should have a second independence reference, Marra said the SNP’s failure to get an outright majority in Holyrood in May signalled that it was not a priority for voters.
“The people of Scotland do not want a referendum right now. We will continue to make the case for a stronger Scotland in a changing UK. It’s imperative to me that we are not in this for the status quo. I’m in this to make sure that we can see a stronger Scotland,” he said.
In total, 6,751 votes were cast in the leadership election, representing 49.43% of the Scottish Labour party membership. Fagan won 2,485 votes, while Marra won 4,266.
Dr Eric Shaw, a research fellow at the University of Stirling who co-authored The Strange Death of Labour in Scotland, said the party had to reconnect with working-class voters to win back support.
“The party is facing three main issues: the continued salience of independence, the association between Scottish Labour and Labour in Westminster, and the erosion of Labour’s historic base in Scotland. The plight of the party is reflected in the fact that Labour did better among the professional middle class than it did in the working class in the most recent election.”
Dr Ewan Gibbs, a lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Glasgow, said the new leader had to ask difficult questions about who the party was meant to represent in Scotland.
“We are approaching 20 years of failure with the government in Holyrood if we look at the performance of public services, educational attainment, ongoing income and wealth inequality in Scotland. But Scottish Labour isn’t a party that seems equipped to mobilise that opposition and disappointment at the moment.”
