Tomorrow, a new leader of Scottish Labour will be announced.

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But given the low-key nature of this event, you’d be forgiven for not knowing there was an election to replace Anas Sarwar even happening. Indeed, a recent poll by The Diffley Partnership showed that 22 per cent of those asked had heard nothing about it at all and almost 50 per cent had heard “not very much”.

But then the stakes are exceedingly low. Right now Scottish Labour is going nowhere. Such is its unpopularity, or perhaps irrelevance, that the party can’t even capitalise on the Burnham bounce. The PM is currently the most popular leader in Scotland, but his party trails miles behind the SNP on voter intention at the next Westminster election.

Whoever wins - and the toss-up is between MSPs Michael Marra and Joe Fagan - very few people will care. That same poll showed 48 per cent agreeing that who leads Scottish Labour makes little difference to Scotland. Harsh, but true.

None of that will be a surprise to either Marra or Fagan. They both know the challenge their party faces. Scottish Labour saw its worst result in the history of Scottish Parliament elections in May, returning just 17 MSPS. And then it saw the man who led them to such ignominy be awarded a peerage and a place in Andy Burnham’s government as a........

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