Contest? What Contest?

'With the Budget imminent, he must recognise that the priority is investing Gordon Brown's treasure chest in public services, not income tax cuts.' Scottish Deputy First Minister, Jim Wallace, concerning the London Prime Minister, Tony Blair's Sermon on the Mound, 9 th March 2000.

Leadership fight enters final day

By Chief political correspondent John Morrison in BBC News, 20 th October 2000

The new interim leader - who will be put forward to succeed the late Donald Dewar as first minister - will be chosen on Saturday.

Enterprise Minister Henry McLeish and Finance Minister Jack McConnell have been aiming to maximise support among the party.

The two candidates announced their intention to stand for the party's top job on Thursday - less than 24 hours after the funeral of Mr Dewar, who died last Wednesday.

Mr McLeish, the 52-year-old MSP and MP for Fife Central, said he would fight the contest on the key issues of child poverty, job creation and integrity.

Motherwell and Wishaw MSP Mr McConnell, 40, was the first to declare and outlined social justice, openness and equality as pivotal policy commitments.

The party leadership election, which is usually a long drawn out affair, has been condensed because of the Scotland Act, which says a new first minister must be elected within 28 days.

With both candidates involved in intense lobbying, there were reports that Mr McLeish had secured the support of all of his ministerial colleagues, while Mr McConnell was hoping for support from backbench colleagues.

The interim leader will be chosen by the 81 party members who will meet on Saturday in Stirling.

Votes will be cast in a secret ballot of the 27 voting members of the executive committee of the Scottish Labour Party and the 54-strong Scottish parliamentary Labour group.

Labour's interim leader will go on to be elected first minister - provided the Liberal Democrat MSPs in the coalition support Labour.

Labour's own rules state that the top job should be filled by an electoral college procedure, where votes are split between MPs and MSPs, trade unions and ordinary party members.

The interim first minister will still have to be confirmed by Labour's full-scale electoral college, which will also elect a deputy leader.

It is expected that whoever wins the first contest will not face a second challenge from a Labour back-bencher at this stage.