Monica Lennon: Sir Keir Starmer was a 'selfish and stubborn' Prime Minister

Over the weekend, Ms Lennon became the first person to officially throw their hat in the ring to replace Anas Sarwar as party leader, after it was confirmed she will return to Holyrood after failing to win a seat at May’s election.

Mr Sarwar has left Holyrood to take up a peerage in the House of Lords and a job as UK trade minister in Andy Burnham’s government.

Ms Lennon says Scottish Labour was not able to get a “fair hearing” at May’s election because of the deep unpopularity of Sir Keir. The party finished joint second with Reform UK on 17 seats, its worst result in the history of devolution.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast, she said: “The party had its worst election result ever and it has been losing seats and votes since 1999.

“That downward trend cannot be ignored.

“There were a lot of reasons for that, but I think the primary reason was Keir Starmer. We couldn’t get a proper hearing on the doorsteps because that’s the first thing people brought up.

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“They saw Keir Starmer and saw that his words and actions didn’t match up and there was a deep disappointment from the people who put their trust in Labour in 2024 to get rid of the Tories and change the direction.

"They felt Labour was losing its way. Keir Starmer is deeply unpopular and many behind closed doors were telling him ‘things have to change’.

“A lot of them happened to be women in senior roles, and they were sacked and briefed against.

“Keir Starmer should have read the room, but he was selfish and stubborn and that contaminated people’s view of Scottish Labour.”

She said the election result “could have been worse” had Mr Sarwar not called for Sir Keir to resign as Prime Minister.

She said: “It is devastating because we have brilliant people in the party who care about our communities and our public services and who want to lift Scotland up and make us the best country we can be.”

Ms Lennon added: “When I was out campaigning for Andy Burnham in Makerfield I heard for the first time in a long time what Labour is all about - being part of a family and working class communities.

“I know in Scotland people don’t see us like that anymore.”

During her interview, Ms Lennon also praised the NHS after going through a health scare in the weeks since she left the Scottish Parliament.

She said: “I had a brief break, and clearly I want to be back in parliament. It wasn’t my choice, but the time away has given me space to reflect and rest.

“It is known that I had an operation on the day of the election, so I had some personal recovery to do, but when you’ve had a serious health scare you think about what is important in life and get priorities in the right order.

“That’s my thinking about Scottish Labour - I’ve been away from the parliament but I haven’t stopped thinking about the big issues affecting the country and Scottish Labour.”