East Kilbride Obama should stick to straight-talking answers

Until a couple of weeks ago most punters had not heard of the South Scotland MSP.

But he now hopes to have a similar fate to the only ever black American president, who came from nowhere to win the Democratic nomination and then the race for the White House almost 20 years ago.

In his campaign launch in Glasgow, the first time he has faced the national press since declaring his intention to succeed Anas Sarwar, the former South Lanarkshire leader proved himself to be a talented public speaker.

His speech was perhaps a bit geeky and had too many cliches in it.

It did include swipes at the former leadership and rival Michael Marra for allowing SNP budgets to pass with little pressure.

But his speech was fluid and particularly passionate towards the end - even if the room was just filled with a few dozen Labour MPs, MSPs and activists.

It was in the question and answer session with journalists afterwards where he came into his own.

Cleverly, he started off the Q&A session by asking all those in the room to “patient” with the media.

He showed himself to be a straight-talker, immediately dismissing any suggestion that anyone in his team would brief against other people in the party.

He said: “I know my team and I trust my team, and they know what my expectations are for them.

“I don't tolerate that kind of internal briefing, and as a leader, I would stamp it out.”

He also head on batted away suggestions he was a “puppet” for other people in the party and added that he was “not interested in making digs at any other candidates”.

He easily handled questions, dismissing the idea that Scottish Labour should break away from the UK party and vowing to lift the coalition ban at local government.

At the end of the session, he nearly said that Labour would win the next Holyrood election, but caught himself.

He said: “What you will see from this campaign over the course of the contest are new ideas around how we conduct ourselves in the Scottish Parliament, how we exercise power, and how we build for that next election, where we are going to... where I am going to be standing to be First Minster of this country.”

It was an impressive showing from a man who has only been in the Scottish Parliament for a few months.

Despite his clear talent at public speaking and ability to think on his feet, Mr Fagan faces a difficult task in beating the better established figures of Mr Marra and Monica Lennon.

He could learn a little from the last two men to win UK Labour leadership contests: Jeremy Corbyn and Sir Keir Starmer.

Both had key sets of pledges which set them apart from the other candidates and won them over 50 per cent of the vote.

If he truly wants to be the East Kilbride Obama and win from obscurity, he will need to drop the geekiness and embrace simple policies.