Iain Gray struggles to fight back in final tough leaders’ debate

Iain Gray tried his best to fight back both against the SNP and against further appalling poll news in the last of the televised debates tonight.

But the Scottish Labour leader ultimately found himself harried to such an extent, both by his political opponents and by a feisty Glasgow audience, that he was unable to claw back any of the ground his party has already lost through the campaign. None of the leaders emerged as the clear winner of the debate. Tavish Scott, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, gave his best performance of the campaign – possibly because he has become so resigned to doing badly that he has relaxed enough to enjoy it. Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Conservative leader, did not quite make the impression she has done in previous debates, but was clear and decisive – while Alex Salmond was his solid, competent self without excelling and dominating the way his party managers had hoped he would.

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But, as the clear leader going into this STV debate, Mr Salmond didn’t need to win: he only had to make sure no one would win and he would emerge ahead at the end – and that is what happened. All the leaders went into the debate on the back of the latest poll, this one by TNS-BMRB for STV, and it showed the Nationalists extending their lead over Labour with just one day’s campaigning left until polling day. According to the poll, the SNP are on 45 per cent in the constituency vote, a massive 18 points ahead of Labour on 27. The Tories are on 15, the Lib Dems on ten and the others on three. In the regional list vote, the SNP are on 38 per cent, 13 ahead of Labour on 25 with the Tories on 16, the Lib Dems on nine, the Greens on eight and others on four. Translated into seats, this would give the SNP 61 seats to Labour’s 32 with the Tories 18, the Lib Dems nine, the Greens eight and the others one. Each of the leaders was asked to react to the poll and all Mr Gray could do was stress the usual politician’s mantra that “the only poll that counts” is the one on Thursday. But it sounded weak and Mr Gray – understandably – sounded battered by the constant bad news. There was more to come when the debate started. Mr Gray found himself on the back foot right from the off when he was set upon by the first two questioners. The first said he had been a victim of knife crime, that he had written to Mr Gray’s office, but had not received a response. The second tore into all the unionist parties who had voted against minimum pricing for alcohol, but reserved most of the criticism for Mr Gray, demanding: “How you could have voted against minimum pricing when it is the major Scottish problem is beyond belief. “What planet are you living on?” he demanded. Mr Gray came back quickly to apologise to the crime victim: “If you have written to my office and I have not replied, I apologise for that. It would be extremely unusual.” But, by then, the damage had been done. Mr Gray did rally by coming up with good, strong answers on modern apprenticeships, but Mr Salmond was also solidly competent on that issue, preventing Mr Gray from edging ahead. Miss Goldie showed her experience in always remembering the questioner’s name and referring to them directly. She also made it clear that she would keep stressing the core message she wanted to get across. Time and again, almost regardless of the question, she replied: “That is the core issue here: we have to grow the economy.” It was clear that Miss Goldie was aware of what would appeal to her party’s traditional base and the debate presented her with the last real opportunity to appeal to that audience. Not for the first time, Mr Scott found it difficult to fight his way into the centre-left ground occupied by Mr Salmond and Mr Gray, but he found his voice on the independence referendum issue. At first, it appeared as if the Scottish Lib Dem leader was about to endorse an independence referendum, talking about how the ground had shifted and how the SNP appeared to be heading for victory. But he changed tack at the last moment and told the audience that they should realise they would get independence if they continued to back the SNP. But if they wanted something different, they should vote for the Lib Dems. Mr Scott then turned on Mr Salmond, accused him of being “wily” and added: “He will cook up the question [on the referendum], he will cook up the timing and he will probably cook up the result as well.” STV’s questionmaster Bernard Ponsonby missed a trick by not hauling Mr Scott up on the AV referendum. Why, he should have asked, have the Lib Dems driven through a referendum on something no party actually believes in, but the party is opposing a referendum on independence? This was the point made by Mr Salmond. The SNP leader was well rehearsed on this subject but he made his case well and convincingly. But Mr Ponsonby did at least spend time focusing on the key issue of the financing of public services and the claims made by most of the parties that they could keep most services without making cuts just by saving money through efficiency savings. It was then that Mr Salmond found himself on the wrong side of an audience member. A nurse from Greater Glasgow and Clyde tore into the first minister over his claim that he would protect the health service from cuts. She claimed student nurses couldn’t get jobs, that nurses weren’t being replaced and that beds were being closed because of the Scottish government’s management of the service. “That’s not protection, that’s the annihilation of the service,” she said. By this time, the audience had heckled both Mr Gray and Mr Salmond, giving them both an equally rough time as the partisan members of the audience reacted to the comments of the leader they didn’t like. If Mr Gray thought he had escaped from the audience’s attacks, he was wrong. Near the end, he got another curve ball, this time from a man who referred to Mr Gray’s embarrassing escape from anti-cuts protestors in Glasgow Central station at the start of the campaign by hiding in a sandwich shop. “Can Mr Gray recommend a sandwich and doesn’t he think a potential leader shouldn’t run away?” Rather than duck this, Mr Gray decided to take this challenge to his leadership credentials head on. “I have never run away from anything,” he said. And he added: “Leadership is important. I tell you this, anybody who thinks that I would not spend every waking minute of every day creating jobs and opportunities for young people simply doesn’t know me. It’s what I have done all my life and it is what I want to do for Scotland for the next five years. That is the leadership I offer.” It was a feisty reply to a difficult issue he could have ducked. Mr Gray ended up appearing battered and bruised, but combative and strong too. Mr Salmond was not given such a hard time and he appeared smooth and in control – if not as dominant as usual. Mr Scott did well and Miss Goldie forged her own path, as has now become something of a trademark for her.

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