Monica Lennon lashes out at Labour after her leadership bid fails

By MICHAEL BLACKLEY, SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 19:56, 17 August 2026 | Updated: 19:56, 17 August 2026 A female MSP who claimed the Scottish Labour leadership contest ‘reeks of misogyny’ has launched another attack on the process after failing to secure enough support to make the ballot. Monica Lennon, who previously lost out to Anas Sarwar in the 2021 contest, fell short of the requirement that all candidates must be nominated by three MSPs and three MPs, meaning it will now be a straight battle between Michael Marra and Joe Fagan. While she received the late backing of Carol Mochan to give her three nominations from MSPs including herself, she dropped out of the process after only being backed by two MPs. On Monday she claimed the party is ‘stuck in the past’. Earlier this month, the politician – who failed to secure a seat at Holyrood in May’s election but will return as an MSP on the Glasgow regional list because Mr Sarwar resigned to take up a seat in the House of Lords – hit out at unnamed figures in the party when she claimed the process ‘reeks of misogyny and male entitlement’. In a statement after the closure of nominations on Monday, Ms Lennon said: ‘Scottish Labour is stuck in the past. We are not listening to all of our members, the wider movement that built us or the millions of Scots who won’t vote for us. ‘This leadership contest should have been a wide debate, rooted in courage, humility and the imagination to become a modern political party for workers and working class communities in Scotland. ‘Our values mean nothing without vision, conviction and committed action. Monica Lennon fell short of the requirement that all candidates must be nominated by three MSPs and three MPs Joe Fagan was only elected to Holyrood for the first time in May 'We must be a party where people can believe in fair work and a healthy planet; where women’s rights and LGBTQ rights are a shared struggle; where engaging in debate about Scotland’s place in the UK and the global community is a strength, not a weakness.’ She called for the next leader to ‘lead with decency and act with courage’. Mr Fagan, who was elected to Holyrood for the first time in May, won the backing of seven MPs and five MSPs during the nomination process, while Mr Marra, the party’s finance spokesman, remains the front-runner and secured the support of 24 MPs and seven fellow MSPs. A ballot of members and affiliated supporters will open on August 28 and close on September 17, with the winner announced on September 19. Mr Marra, a North East MSP, said Ms Lennon is ‘one of the most formidable and effective campaigners the Labour movement has’. He added: ‘The next leader of Scottish Labour has a huge task: to unite our party, rediscover our soul and reconnect with Scotland. I am the candidate who can do that.’ Mr Fagan, MSP for South Scotland, said: ‘I want to rebuild Scottish Labour as the party of the working people of Scotland, rooted in our communities, serious about using power to change lives and ambitious enough to make Scotland’s future belong to the people who work, care, build, teach and keep our country going.’ Michael Marra, the party’s finance spokesman, remains the frontrunner  SNP MSP Collette Stevenson said: ‘The Scottish Labour Party claim to be “the party of working people”, but they have silenced Trade Unions and used underhand tactics to keep Monica Lennon off the ballot paper. ‘Monica Lennon was rightly open to giving the Scottish people the right to decide their own future, a simple concept of democracy that the Scottish Labour Party has once again moved to deny the Scottish people. ‘Two blokes will now compete in a contest that has descended into bitter infighting and vicious attacks with 300,000 members of Unite and Unison disregarded.’