The leader of the Labour Party in Scotland (and one of the last senior Corbynistas in a leadership role) is hanging to his position by a thread today. The coup against his leadership started yesterday with three Labour MSPs publicly calling for Leonard to resign, and a fourth joining the calls later on. Today UK Labour Shadow Cabinet member (and general calamity) Rachel Reeves waded in, saying the Scottish leader should “consider his position”, later rowing back to tweet that “matters about Scottish Labour are for Scottish Labour”. Oops.

Now following Reeves’ reverse ferret, LabourList’s Sienna Rodgers is reporting that Leonard has been told he has “lost the majority of the group”. Labour only has 23 MSPs so just 17% of his parliamentary party have so far publicly called for him to go. He is digging in, insisting the party still backs him. One to watch…

UPDATE: Starmer is now publicly backing Corbynite Richard Leonard, despite Rachel Reeves’ slip this morning…

UK Labour leader Keir Starmer says he has a 'very good working relationship' with Scottish party leader Richard Leonard, even while one of his senior shadow ministers has called on Leonard to consider his position. https://t.co/afhdf5qPML pic.twitter.com/PFWSKkJO9Q

— STV News (@STVNews) September 3, 2020