A FORMER Scottish Labour leader has given her verdict on the Labour Government’s communication failings in its first 100 days, suggesting Sue Gray’s new post sounding like a representative “coming from a foreign country”.
During Wednesday nights BBC Debate Night held in Perth, host Stephen Jardine asked Kezia Dugdale about Gray’s recent appointment as envoy to the regions and name which came after she was forced to resign as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff amid infighting.
He said: “What about Sue Gray (below), resigns as chief of staff and becomes envoy to the nations and regions. She’s here on Friday meeting in Edinburgh. When you were Scottish Labour leader, would you have welcomed an envoy to the nations and regions coming to Scotland to meet you?”.
Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie who was also on the panel agreed, adding: “It is a little bit.”
Dugdale said: “So I don’t think that first word is helpful,” before adding: “I do think it’s really good though to have someone at the heart of the UK Government that’s interested and focused on making devolution work.”
Dugdale, who works at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Public Policy, recently published a major report on breaking the independence stalemate alongside former Yes Scotland chief Stephen Noon.
When asked if she had sent the recent policy paper to Gray, Dugdale laughed before responding: “I actually haven’t but I will do now Stephen, that’s a great idea.”
During the first question, “Why are Labour not standing up for working people?”, Dugdale suggested communications during Starmer’s first 100 days were one of the key factors in the public “disappointment” and it was an “inevitable result after offering big change … and not seeing that change right away”.
She said: “The combination of the freebies and the winter fuel allowance leaves people feeling really disappointed. That said, if you don’t mind me saying, there are some really great things that Labour have done in the first 100 days that have been eclipsed by all this stuff”.
She listed several things the Labour Government has done including praising their response to the riots in August, the new workers’ rights being introduced and bringing English railways into public ownership.
