Michael Marra was more genuine than Anas Sarwar - but also more boring
Andy Burnham came onstage before the new Scottish Labour’s speech, but left before he started speaking
The Scottish Secretary and Scottish Labour leader’s speeches are not a key part of the Labour Party Conference.
Generally, members from down south - who make up the bulk of the conference’s attendees - are not that interested in what they have to say.
But this year was a big moment for new Scottish leader Michael Marra, who gave his first ever speech at the party’s national conference.
Just before him was First Secretary of State - otherwise known as Andy Burnham’s de facto deputy Louise Haigh.
The Prime Minister sat behind her, as did Chancellor John Healey and deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell.
Perhaps Mr Burnham would hang around to show support to his new Scottish leader?
No such luck for Mr Marra. As soon as Ms Haigh finished speaking, she, Mr Burnham, Mr Healey and Ms Powell all cleared out.
They were replaced by Mr Marra, Scotland’s man in the Cabinet Douglas Alexander, and Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie.
Mr Alexander was up first with his speech. He made a joke about how Scotland had given Liverpool the football icons Alan Hansen, Graeme Souness, Andy Robertson, Bill Shankly, Kenny Dalglish and current Everton manager David Moyes.
He quipped about the PM being an Everton fan: “You may have heard the rumour that all these speeches are vetted by No10.
“All I can say is someone we know insisted on that last name.”
No one laughed. It was absolutely brutal.
He went on giving his usual son of a minister style address. There was a tedious part about technical colleges which none of the audience seemed to understand.
Mr Alexander, not usually the most vibrant speaker, did show a bit of fervour at one point.
When discussing shipbuilding - a bit of a theme in many of the speeches on Sunday - he aimed an enraged line at John Swinney.
He told the SNP First Minister: “For goodness' sake man - for the sake of Scotland - get to your feet.”
It is one of the few times Mr Alexander has shown real emotion while speaking publicly. He should do more of it.
To round up, the Scottish Secretary claimed Michael Marra would “restore Scottish Labour to being once again Scotland’s national party.”
He also previously claimed Anas Sarwar was a “once in a generation politician” - so make of that what you will.
After Dull Douglas had set the stage, Mr Marra showed more passion and got the half empty audience (a wee bit) excited.
He acknowledged the party’ struggles in May’s Holyrood election.
He said the Scottish public “knew what we are against” but that “people didn’t know enough of what we were for.”
Mr Marra then listed “what Labour is for”. This was the best received part of his speech.
He went on about “social justice” and “the good life of working people”.
Like all standard Labour conference speeches, he mentioned “the minimum wage, the NHS, ending austerity, and cutting child poverty.”
All of this went down well with the crowd.
Labour’s man in Dundee then mentioned his grandmother’s story, and how her family had all saved money for her to go to college while they worked in the city’s jute mills.
He spoke about making “Scottish education the best in the world” - this would be no mean feat given the latest Pisa results.
This is an area where he differs from his predecessor.
Anas Sarwar rarely mentioned education when he was Scottish Labour leader, even though it is an area which most of the public agree the SNP is failing on.
Perhaps it is because Mr Sarwar is privately educated and also sends his children to private school, something he does not want to draw too much attention to.
The big point in Mr Marra’s speech was that there would be a conference motion condemning the attempted fire and rehire of 23,000 workers by the SNP-Green Glasgow City Council.
The purpose of the motion is to “send the clearest possible message that the Labour movement will never accept threats to working people.”
But it will not have any material impact to the workers and will not bring forward the date of the law outlawing fire and rehire - which could prevent this from happening.
Mr Marra was better received than his predecessor was last year. It seemed then, after years of Scottish Labour being celebrated by the UK party, that no one cared anymore.
At least this time, there was a fair interest in the new Scots leader - even if there were plenty of empty seats.
Mr Sarwar was always full of the chat. He was a polished operator who was a confident and slick speaker.
Mr Marra does not have the same bluster and is a bit more boring.
But he showed during his speech that he has a natural, less affected way of talking which is more genuine and could draw people in as a result.
He was punchy, and to the point. He got quite fired up at points in a way that seemed believable rather than an act.
But his task will be having cut through when Labour is so diminished.
His speech began to run out of steam as the audience’s attention waned.
The last part was quite upbeat but never really landed.
He said that “the next election will be a simple choice. A battle of ideas. On one side, isolation, anger, fear. On the other, empathy, community, compassion.
“It will be hope versus hate. And conference, hope will win.”
After Mr Marra, the session moved onto Welsh Labour, with speeches from the Welsh Secretary and Welsh leader.
But there was no solidarity from their Scottish colleagues.
A soon as Mr Marra finished his speech, the Scottish Labour MPs filed out of the hall en masse.
So much for caring about the union.
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