Joe Fagan will lift Scottish Labour council coalitions ban if elected leader

Joe Fagan speaking at his campaign launch in Glasgow city centre (pic: John Devlin) | Scotsman

Joe Fagan has promised to lift Scottish Labour’s ban on council coalitions if he is elected leader.

The South Scotland MSP also took a swipe at former leader Anas Sarwar and leadership rival Michael Marra for having “sat on the sidelines” on the Scottish Budget rather than forcing concessions from the SNP.

Mr Fagan insisted he was “his own man” and “nobody’s puppet” at his campaign launch in Glasgow City Centre.

He opened the door to Labour entering coalitions with other parties at local government level ahead of the Scottish council elections next year.

The former South Lanarkshire Council leader said: “I don't think we should be setting arbitrary rules around who we enter into pacts with, and obviously I rule out [going into coalition] with Reform.

“But I have to say these decisions should be taken locally. And what we do is we then submit those power-sharing proposals to our Scottish Executive Committee, and we test them on merit. We test them on the policies and the objectives that we are able to secure in a power-sharing arrangement with other parties.”

He added: “I want local Labour groups to have maximum control over the power-sharing arrangements that they enter into. I trust them to do their own thing.”

Scottish Labour announced before the last Budget that it would support it, despite not knowing what was in it.

Mr Fagan was critical of this decision, saying Labour had “reduced ourselves to a party of commentators” and had “ put politics and tactics ahead of real outcomes for working people.”

He said John Swinney would need to fulfil five things in a future Budgets to gain Labour support. The first of these was public control of buses.

Mr Fagan said: “We've suffered a painful defeat, and we have to be honest with it. We have to learn the lessons of where we've lost.

“And one clear lesson is this: We cannot reduce ourselves to being a party of commentators.

“For two budgets in a row, while other parties forced concessions from the SNP, we sat on the sidelines. We put politics and tactics ahead of real outcomes for working people.

“We stood in the middle of the road. We shouldn't be surprised to find that we got run down. It's time now for Scottish Labour to be bold, to be confident, and to shape what happens next.”

He continued: “So, if I'm elected leader, we'll take a different approach, and it starts with a serious offer to John Swinney and the SNP.

“If elected, I will set five clear tests for the coming budget.

“Five tests of whether it will make a real difference to the lives of working people across Scotland.

“If you make serious progress on them, we will work with you to pass a budget.”

When asked whether that was a dig at Mr Marra, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson, Mr Fagan said: “ I'm not interested in making digs at any other candidates.

“I am interested in reflecting on the strategies to be applied in Parliament in the previous term, and how things can be different when the term is coming up.”

He also hit back at suggestions that his campaign was being controlled by other people - including deputy leader Jackie Baillie.

He said: “On the first point about my strings being pulled, I think it should be obvious from what I've said earlier today that that's not the case.

“ I have plenty of criticisms of what they've done been wrong before, and I've got ideas about how we can put it right. I'm my own man, and nobody's puppet.”