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Just four months before the next Scottish Parliament election, Richard Leonard has quit as Scottish Labour leader.
The Central Scotland MSP announced the move on Thursday afternoon, saying he had made his decision to step down over the Christmas period.
– Does Richard Leonard’s resignation come as a surprise?
Not really. The Scottish Labour leader has been under pressure over his failure to grow support for the party – which is now the third force in Scottish politics, having previously dominated north of the border.
Under Mr Leonard’s leadership the party came fifth in the 2019 European elections, losing the two Scottish MEPs it had. And in the 2019 general election the party lost six of the seven MPs it previously had north of the border.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard LABOUR began the year still reeling from a dismal general election result in 2019 – has since installed a new leader, attempted to oust the head of its Scottish party and is facing a potential disaster at May’s Holyrood poll. After a woeful performance at the polls in December 2019, which left Ian Murray as the party’s sole MP in Scotland, Jeremy Corbyn eventually agreed to step aside as party leader. But Sir Keir Starmer was not named the party’s new leader until April, leading to months of in-fighting and squabbling over the direction Labour should take, including over Scottish independence.