17 August 2007
Former enterprise minister Wendy Alexander is in pole position to take the Scottish Labour Party leadership after former First Minister Jack McConnell resigned on August 15.
Alexander, the party's finance spokeswoman, is the sister of Douglas Alexander, the UK's international development secretary. An MSP since the Parliament's inception in 1999, she was a minister under McConnell and his two predecessors, Henry McLeish and Donald Dewar.
McConnell said he had accepted an offer to lead education work in Malawi and Rwanda. He is to continue as MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw.
His resignation comes in the wake of Labour's disastrous defeat in May, when the Scottish National Party became the largest group at Holyrood and ousted McConnell's government.
There has been speculation that McConnell, 47, will at some stage be elevated to the House of Lords. Formerly holding ministerial posts for finance and education, he was elected first minister and Scottish Labour leader in 2001 following the resignation of Henry McLeish. He is also a former general secretary of the Scottish Labour Party.
Announcing his resignation, McConnell said: 'It is an honour to have led Labour in Scotland since the early years of devolution. But today, after accepting an offer last week to help improve education for some of the poorest children in the world, I am resigning with immediate effect.'
McConnell, whose successes include the introduction of a smoking ban in enclosed public places ahead of England and Wales, claimed Scotland was now a better place than it was six years ago.
He added: 'Sometimes it was right that Scotland took a different path to that in England. That was always the purpose and definition of the devolution settlement and Scotland is a better country for it.'
McConnell's interest in helping children in some of the world's poorest places is the result of initiatives he took to develop links between Scotland and Malawi.
He has accepted a voluntary position leading the educational work of the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative in that country, as well as in Rwanda. The organisation was set up by former US president Bill Clinton and Scots philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter.
He is also to be proposed as the next high commissioner to Malawi, Downing Street announced.
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