By Liz S

Daily Record 28 September 2025.

“A senior Labour MSP has told wannabe party leader Andy Burnham to “shut up” amid speculation he plans to launch a bid to topple Keir Starmer”

Guess who the ‘senior’ Labour MSP was?

None other than one of the contenders for the Labour Branch office manager’s post i.e. Michael Marra.

Embarrassing now is it not .

That is , it would be embarrassing for any decent politician .

However for a Labour politician , who now stands in the (supposed) ‘leadership’ contest for Labour in Scotland, it will be be no more than yet another self inflicted humiliating faux pas that will be swept under the (now bulging Labour) carpet.

So then , as a past incident, it will most likely never be referred to again (especially by the media).

However for us it will be hilarious if Marra does indeed win the Labour Branch office manager’s contest.

If that does happen then Burnham should ask Marra if he still wants him to “shut up” , now that he, Burnham, has indeed “toppled Keir Starmer” as the Labour HQ leader.

In fact if Marra does win and so becomes the branch office manager in Scotland then he will have to squirm and pledge allegiance to Burnham as Labour HQ’s new boss.

To make matters worse , that is WORSE FOR MARRA , he will also have to then say how great Burnham is as the new Labour HQ boss/PM .

This past situation where Marra had previously opened his big gob in 2025 to chastise Burnham tells you that he, just like Anas Sarwar, is completely useless as a politician.

No political savvy at all.

I mean surely with everything that was happening with Starmer, including his lack of popularity with the public, then any canny and insightful politician would have seen that the writing was on the wall as far as Starmer’s future leadership hopes being sustained.

So if Marra wins, then straight from the off , he will be seen as being in a really embarrassing position based on what he previously said to the now new PM , Andy Burnham , i.e. he told him to “Shut up”.

It would be even more delicious to get to hear his reasons for being so RUDE and DISMISSIVE (Ha Ha) to Burnham, just for him to try to save face.

Seems to me that Michael Marra did not like Andy Burnham, as why would Marra be so quick to call him out.

If Marra does win then I am sure Andy Burnham will be absolutely delighted Ha Ha.

We also hear that Jackie Baillie is behind Joe Fagan (scary) , as she thinks that we the public will assume that as he has no (supposed) political baggage as a ‘new face’ (new MSP) for Labour at Holyrood , so then she will (wrongly) assume that will then somehow make him seem like a better candidate.

Well I read Fagan’s Wikipedia page and some of it , for me, did not make comfortable reading, nor I am sure would it be comfortable for him to read either nor for the Labour party to read.

As it seems that he, Fagan, does indeed have some historical political baggage.

I mean of course he does , after all he is a Labour politician. (they all have political baggage , that is once you do some research on them).

Now I see that The National has a story on Joe Fagan (Jackie’s candidate), with a headline that states:

“Labour leadership hopeful presided over ‘severe bullying’ Councillor claims” (the Councillor who states this is a fellow Labour Councillor) – and this story backs up what was written on Fagan’s Wikipedia page.

So basically both Marra and Fagan are now somewhat tainted by their past, not surprised as that is what you always get with Labour.

(The clue with Fagan was the fact that Jackie Baillie was backing him, so that confirmed to me that there just had to be some (alleged) dodgy story to relate about him and his political past).

Labour are such an awful party, at all levels.

Liz S