Nominations open in Scottish Labour leadership contest

Nominations have opened in the Scottish Labour leadership contests.

MSPs Monica Lennon, Michael Marra and Joe Fagan have all confirmed their bids to replace Anas Sarwar, who stepped down last month to become a minister in Andy Burnham's government.

Candidates have two weeks to secure the support needed to reach the ballot, including nominations from MSPs, MPs and affiliated organisations.

Nominations close on 17 August, with party members and affiliated supporters voting between 28 August and 17 September. The new leader is due to be announced two days later on 19 September.

Marra, Scottish Labour's finance spokesperson, and former council leader Fagan - who was only recently elected as an MSP - are both confident they will make the ballot in the contest.

There is less certainty about Lennon, who said on Sunday the race "reeks of misogyny and male entitlement".

She said on social media there should be no "coronation or a contest without women".

With nominations open, other contenders could still come forward.

Katy Clark confirmed on Monday that she will not stand.

The West of Scotland MSP said the party's next leader must prioritise pressing the case for public ownership of services in transport, the care sector and leisure.

Clark previously represented North Ayrshire and Arran at Westminster and was later appointed to the House of Lords.

She now serves as one of Holyrood's deputy presiding officers.

Fagan has received the backing of MSP Paul Sweeney, who confirmed he would not be standing himself.

The National has reported that acting Scottish Labour leader Jackie Baillie is backing Fagan's campaign.

Meanwhile Edinburgh Southern MSP Daniel Johnson has publicly declared his support for Marra.

The contest was triggered after Sarwar stepped down as Scottish Labour leader and MSP to take up a seat in the House of Lords and become a trade minister.

He led the party through its worst election result in the history of devolution in May, winning just 17 seats out of 129.

Marra said the party had not been clear enough in its offer to voters ahead of the Scottish Parliament election.

"Highlighting the incompetence of the SNP is not an argument for why people should put their faith in Scottish Labour instead," he said.

"People have seen what the SNP has done or hasn't done with power for almost 20 years. People wanted to know what Scottish Labour would do tomorrow if we won power and that just wasn't clear enough.

"What I want is for our party's goals to become obvious and unmistakable."

Lennon said she wanted to see a "big tent" party and an end to internal disputes.

She said: "First, the factional infighting must end.

"Insiders who value personal loyalties over progressive action have often underestimated their colleagues.

"I've felt that, too."

Meanwhile Fagan said that Prime Minister Andy Burnham's recent by-election victory in Makerfield demonstrated that Labour could "win back trust" when it was "serious about changing people's lives".

He said: "Scottish Labour needs to learn lessons from where we have won, not just where we have lost.

"The lesson is simple: people will listen to Scottish Labour again when we stop sounding like a party talking to itself and start proving that we are on their side."