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Leonard was elected Scottish Labor leader three years ago
The Scottish Labor leader will face a vote of no confidence at a meeting of the party’s governing body.
A motion has been made to the party’s Scottish Executive Committee (SEC) asking it to express that it has no confidence in the leadership of Richard Leonard.
The committee is expected to vote on the motion on Saturday morning.
Leonard is already facing calls to resign from some of his own MSPs, but says he has no intention of doing so.
It is understood that the motion to the SEC has been signed by a third of its members, which means that it will be put to the vote of the full committee.
The committee is made up of elected representatives, union leaders and representatives of the rank and file of the party.
Leonard said that many of the SEC members who had signed the motion “were not mandated by their organizations to vote that way.”
And he said the last thing Labor supporters and potential voters wanted to see was the party “turning to itself.”
He said the move to overthrow him was “completely fractional,” adding: “They have nothing to say or offer, no ideas, no plan to protect jobs and living standards in the context of the Covid crisis.”
It comes after four Scottish Labor MSPs, James Kelly, Daniel Johnson, Jenny Marra and Mark Griffin, publicly called for Leonard to resign earlier this month.
They have claimed that the party faces “disaster” in next year’s Scottish Parliament elections if it remains in office.
Leonard, who was a close ally of former UK Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, still has the support of many on the party’s left.
But his critics point to the party’s dismal ratings in opinion polls as proof that change is needed.
Scottish Labor is currently the third largest in the Scottish Parliament, behind the SNP and the Conservatives, and lost all but one of its MPs in the general election last year.
