'Labour will be back after period of reflection', says Jo Kirby

LABOUR'S Jo Kirby admitted it had been a disappointing night in Moray and nationally for her party.

The former teacher polled 2432 votes to finish a distant third behind the SNP and Conservative candidates.

And with Labour plunging to its worst performance in more than 30 years, leader Jeremy Corbyn announced he will not lead the party into another general election.

However, he plans to stay on to lead a period of reflection as Labour regroups and initiates a leadership election.

Kirby said: "It was obviously a disapointing night nationally and in Scotland. I think this whole campaign has been about constitutional issues and when it goes back to being about education, about health and people's wages and jobs I think Labour will be back in the next election."

Asked whether Labour could have handled Brexit and IndyRef2 differently, she added: "I think we lost out on that and maybe weren't as clear as we could have been and as quickly as we could have been as a party and that is something we are going to have to reflect on as a party.

"There will have to be a lot of reflection nationally and in the Scottish Labour Party about where we go from here. We have suffered some losses and we need to move forward and that's what we will do."

On the issue of leadership of the party, Kirby said: "I think it's too early for me to comment on that but we are going to have to do some reflecting."

Labour polled 5 per cent of the vote in Moray, which was down 6 per cent on its 2017 performance.

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