The fallout from the elections on May 7 continues to rage in the Labour Party as more fingers of blame are pointed at Keir Starmer.
Wes Streeting became the first senior figure to break cover and resign from the UK Government in order to force a leadership contest. That was quickly followed by the news Manchester mayor Andy Burnham will contest a by-election next month as a route back to the House of Commons – a vital first step if he is to join any race to become the next PM.
But for now, despite endless speculation, there is no formal leadership contest and Starmer very much remains in charge at Downing Street. The Labour leader’s position remains he will fight any leadership challengers.
This process is likely to take months, not weeks, to sort itself out. Which is one of the main reasons Scottish Labour is best to stand back and keep its head down after its own dismal electoral performance on May 7.
Questions have rightly been asked about whether Anas Sarwar remains the best man to be leader north of the Border. But Glasgow MP Zubir Ahmed is right when he said yesterday that there is little appetite at the present moment to change the leader in Scotland.
The party at Holyrood needs stability at a time of uncertainty at Downing Street. Opposition MSPs, including those in Labour, must get on with holding the SNP government to account.
We can’t have two leadership contests running simultaneously.
John Swinney will be formally re-elected as First Minister later this week after his party’s election triumph.
Now the dust has settled from weeks of campaigning, the SNP leader and his team must get down to business and set out to fix the public services that have stagnated or declined under their watch.
The NHS should be top of the list. And solving the long-running recruitment crisis in nursing would be a good place to start.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned that despite legislation setting out safe staffing levels having come into force in 2024, shortages continue to have a damaging impact on the health service.
There are simply too few nurses to meet demand, and those that are serving on the frontline regularly report being overworked and underpaid.
This can’t continue and must be treated as a priority by the SNP government.
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