15:51

The bloc of 13 Scottish Labour MSPs who have backed demands for Jeremy Corbyn to stand down includes two former Scottish party leaders – Iain Gray and Johann Lamont – who both resigned after suffering humiliating election defeats, and Anas Sarwar, formerly deputy leader under Jim Murphy and once acting Scottish Labour leader.



Their decision to support the Corbyn rebellion en masse, following party leader Kezia Dugdale’s lead from yesterday, opens up a schism inside the Labour group at Holyrood.

Three leftwing colleagues – deputy leader Alex Rowley; Nick Findlay, a former leadership hopeful; and former GMB official Richard Leonard – issued their own joint statement backing Corbyn earlier on Thursday. Earlier this week, Corbyn was backed by the only openly pro-Brexit Labour MSP in Holyrood, Elaine Smith.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale with Jeremy Corbyn and London mayor Sadiq Khan at a remain event the day before last week’s EU referendum. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

The new anti-Corbyn letter refers to the rebellion against his leadership at Westminster: “As parliamentarians, and the elected representatives in a parliament representing millions of people – including Labour voters – across Scotland, we would expect any leader to reflect seriously on such a substantial vote of no confidence. As Kezia Dugdale rightly said, if she could not command the confidence of 80% of her Labour Group then she would consider her position …

“[It] is deeply regrettable that we have to make such a statement, but for the good of the party and, more importantly, the country, we believe Jeremy Corbyn, who is a principled man, must do the right thing and allow the party to once again provide effective opposition and regroup as a credible party of government.”

The other signatories include Jackie Baillie, Claire Baker, Claudia Beamish, Neil Bibby, Mary Fee (Scottish parliament Labour group chair), Mark Griffin, Daniel Johnson, James Kelly, Lewis Macdonald and Colin Smyth.

