Scottish MPs want new leader before Holyrood election

As I suggested on Monday, the Scottish elections are emerging as key to the Labour leadership timetable.

Jim Devine, the Labour MP who won Robin Cook’s old Livingstone seat
last year, said May 31 would be "totally unacceptable" to the Scottish
party.

"The thought that we are going to be running an election
campaign for the Scottish parliament between April and May with this
type of speculation running, accompanied by a Frank Sinatra-type
farewell tour, just will not wash," he said. (Guardian)

Gordon Brown, for one, cannot afford such as a scenario, as a Labour defeat at Holyrood would hamstring his premiership from the start. That may well explain the urgency of some of the current machinations.