SCOTTISH LABOUR is “stuck in the past,” one of its MSPs said today after failing to make it onto the leadership ballot.

Monica Lennon was unable to secure the backing of three MPs to advance to the final run-off alongside fellow MSPs Michael Marra and Joe Fagan by the close of nominations at 10am. 

The pair will now take part in a month-long contest to replace Anas Sarwar after he was made a Westminster government minister and sent to the House of Lords.

In the lead-up to the close of nominations, much was made of who MSP Carol Mochan would back, with her being the last of the Holyrood group to declare her support and Ms Lennon needing one more name to make it on the ballot. 

But it was her support among the party’s Westminster cohort which proved most decisive, with only two MPs nominating her.

In a statement, Ms Lennon said: “Scottish Labour is stuck in the past. We are not listening to all of our members, the wider movement that built us or the millions of Scots who won’t vote for us. 

“This leadership contest should have been a wide debate, rooted in courage, humility and the imagination to become a modern political party for workers and working-class communities in Scotland.”

Ms Lennon, who will return to Holyrood in September to replace Mr Sarwar as MSP for Glasgow, urged those remaining to “lead with decency and act with courage.”

Mr Marra, the party’s finance spokesman, secured the support of 24 MPs and seven MSPs, while Mr Fagan has the backing of seven MPs and five MSPs.

First Minister John Swinney said Ms Lennon’s omission was a sign of a “stitch-up” in the contest. 

“I think the Labour Party has got to explain its own internal mechanisms for selecting its own leader,” he said. 

In a statement, Mr Fagan, the former leader of South Lanarkshire Council, said the party must be “bold again,” saying: “This campaign is about more than understanding what went wrong. 

“It is about what Labour does next. It is about respecting work, backing our communities and giving working people real power over the future. 

“I want to rebuild Scottish Labour as the party of the working people of Scotland.”