The dilemma that will face the new Labour leader

Whichever candidate wins at the weekend must be ready to take on Alex Salmond, writes Hamish Macdonell

HOW do you solve a problem like Alex Salmond? That will be the key question for the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party when the votes are counted this weekend.

The First Minister has dominated Scottish politics for the past 18 months to such an extent that none of his rivals, inside his party or out, has even come close to him.

But Labour Party managers know they must be able to take him on and defeat him if they are to stand any chance of winning the next election in 2011.

If Mr Salmond is as popular then as he is now, Labour might as well give up because it will have no chance of beating the SNP.

Somehow, the new leader has to undermine Mr Salmond's popularity and the Scottish Government's credibility. It will not be an easy task.

Mr Salmond has been almost arrogantly dominant at First Minister's Questions, he refuses to debate on television with any party leader or UK government minister – except the Prime Minister – and his ministers are controlling the pace and timetable of parliament and legislation with dexterity.

Each of the leadership candidates has unique strengths, but only Andy Kerr, the combative former health minister, has declared his intention of taking on Mr Salmond with an openly aggressive approach.

Mr Kerr made clear over the past couple of months that he would hound the First Minister at every occasion, taking him on at his own game, particularly at the weekly joust of First Minister's Questions.

This, though, would be a mistake, according to one senior figure within the party, who believes Mr Kerr's approach would only make the situation worse.

The insider, who did not want to be named, said the only way to take on the First Minister was to be "dry, droll and intelligent", qualities he said Iain Gray possessed but Mr Kerr did not.

He said: "You don't take him on at his own game. He loves the bluster of First Minister's Questions; he is inaccurate; he plays with figures but he loves the bombast of the occasion. It's also difficult to win because he always has the last word and he is a bully."

The source added: "The only way to win is by being fairly relaxed, dry, droll and intelligent. You have to be steady and patient – and don't play his game because he will win."

Mr Kerr has never given the impression of being patient in his approach to Mr Salmond: angry, confrontational and belligerent certainly, but not patient.

It is likely that Cathy Jamieson, the former deputy leader, and Mr Gray, the former enterprise minister, would be able to play the sort of steady and calm game which could unsettle the First Minister.

Ms Jamieson has had several goes at First Minister's Questions in the past, albeit only briefly against Mr Salmond, and has performed competently.

Mr Gray is still burdened with the reputation of being dull in his approach to parliamentary debates, but he showed when he launched a spirited attack on the Scottish Government's legislative programme that he is learning and he has improved.

Last week's performance was Mr Gray's best in many years and it showed that he can be feisty, fiery and sharp.

But some in the Labour movement believe the new leader should simply ignore Mr Salmond and hyping him up – accusing him of lying and making him the focus of their attacks – is playing into his hands.

Lindsay McGarvie, a political and media consultant with McGarvie Morrison Media, said whoever won on Saturday should not even try to take on the First Minister. Instead, the new leader had to come up with better, more appealing and populist policies.

He said: "The bottom line is that Mr Salmond is doing brilliantly in the opinion of the vast majority of the normal people in Scotland. That is the problem the new Labour leader will face. Whoever wins, they can't take him on at his own game."

And he added: "They can't take him on with one-liners, because he will beat them at that, and they will struggle to take him on over the bigger-picture stuff, because he has that covered too.

"The only thing they can do is go deep underground with their policy wonks and come up with ideas which are even more populist than his."

First Minister's Questions is not the only, opportunity for the new Labour leader to take on the First Minister.

Mr Salmond seems to have decided he will not take part in broadcast debates with the other political leaders at Holyrood or UK government ministers unless they are Cabinet minister level or above.

This has prevented his political opponents from debating with him on television, but it has also made him appear pompous and churlish – as shown by his extraordinary performance on the BBC's Newsnight programme earlier this year.

Mr Salmond appeared with David Cairns, the Scotland Office minister, but he had told presenter Jeremy Paxman that he would not debate anything with Mr Cairns.

So Mr Salmond sat next to Mr Cairns and tried to ignore him while a clearly irritated Paxman told viewers the First Minister felt he was "too grand" to debate topics of the day with the UK minister.

Mr Salmond may have got his political points across but viewers everywhere were left with the impression he was arrogant, condescending and haughty.

Maybe this is the way to undermine him, by playing to his pride and his ego.

This was certainly the view of a former Scottish Labour spin doctor, who did not want to be named. He said the new Labour leader should wait for Mr Salmond to bring about his own unpopularity.

He said: "They need to stop fighting against the narrative right now – what the media say; what people think across Scotland – that Alex Salmond is popular, he is competent, he is not corrupt.

"People don't believe he is lying so when Labour say 'Salmond has been caught lying again' no-one believes them because they don't believe he was lying in the first place.

"The Labour Party should be arguing against the SNP's policies and coming up with their own."

The spin doctor also said Mr Kerr's approach of going all out for the SNP leader would not work.

"Alex Salmond will become unpopular over time – all politicians do – so Labour should not try to do it now. The Tories didn't make Gordon Brown unpopular, Labour didn't make Margaret Thatcher unpopular and the SNP didn't make Jack McConnell unpopular.

"Alex Salmond will make himself unpopular, you just have to give him time."

What is clear is that whoever becomes the new leader will have to find his or her own way of taking on the First Minister.

There does seem to be a general feeling that the sort of combative approach favoured by Mr Kerr could be counter-productive and that subtlety and intelligence might work better, with attacks based on policy weaknesses rather than personality.

None of the contenders, though, is in any doubt as to the enormity of the task ahead. Mr Salmond has been at the top of his party, on and off, since 1990. He is the most experienced parliamentarian at Holyrood, the most experienced party leader, and he now has the full weight of government and the civil service behind him.

But like every political leader he will have an Achilles heel – whether it's his arrogance, ego or his lack of attention to detail – and it is up to the new Labour leader to find and exploit it.