A London council leader has urged Scottish Labour to learn lessons from his fight back against rising local support for the British National Party.
The right-wing BNP took a dozen council seats in Barking and Dagenham in 2006, winning 14% of the vote and forming the town hall’s official opposition.
Darren Rodwell, who was central to the campaign to win back votes for Labour and is now the borough’s leader, has now said Scottish Labour needs to ‘reconnect’ with the community as local councillors did almost 10 years ago.
Labour was left with just one MP north of the border after a landslide General Election victory for the Scottish National Party on 7 May.
While not comparing the Scottish National Party with the BNP, Rodwell told the Evening Standard that Scottish Labour needed to launch a similar turn-around as seen in his district in 2006.
He said his local party had to change to reflect the local community, adding: ‘Once we did that we had to apologise, first and foremost, because we’d let people down’.
‘We had to take the abuse on doorsteps and we took a lot. In a four-year period we reconnected with the community. We spoke to 67,000 people,’ Rodwell said.
‘Scots didn’t think overnight: “the people in Westminster don’t give a hoot about us”. That has been over a long period. Everyone has to share the blame, to accept we got it wrong.
‘We have to say, “work with us”, and together ensure the Union’s strong. I don’t want Scotland to vanish from that. It’s important that together we’re strong. That’s the socialist principle.’
