Scottish Co-operative Party backs Sarah Boyack and Kezia Dugdale for Labour elections

The Scottish Co-operative Party is backing Sarah Boyack and Kezia Dugdale in the race for the leadership of the Scottish Labour Party. The two candidates received supporting nominations...

The Scottish Co-operative Party is backing Sarah Boyack and Kezia Dugdale in the race for the leadership of the Scottish Labour Party.

The two candidates received supporting nominations from the Scottish Council of the Co-operative Party for the position of leader and deputy leader.

The first to confirm her intention to stand for leadership elections, Sarah Boyack is a former Holyrood transport minister. She has been at Holyrood since 1999 and received 10 nominations from fellow parliamentarians. The other candidates for the leadership are Jim Murphy and Neil Findlay. To stand in the contest candidates must have 10 nominations from an MP, MSP and MEP. The new leader of the Scottish Labour Party will be announced on 13 December.

Kezia Dugdale, who is standing for the deputy leadership, was elected to Holyrood in 2011 and is shadow cabinet secretary for education and lifelong learning. The the current chair of the Scottish Parliament Group of Co-operative MSPs, she received the support of 51 parliamentarians.

Cathy Peattie, chair of the Scottish Co-operative Party, said: “The Scottish Labour Party is lucky to have such a high quality panel of candidates. It was good to see all of the candidates giving prominence to co-operative policies in their policy programme for Scotland’s future. The Scottish Co-operative Party looks forward to working with all of these candidates in the future as we strive to create a fairer, better, more co-operative Scotland.”

• For more information on the elections, visit the Scottish Labour website.

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