(Although since then Scottish Labour has again left the field with Kezia Dugdale quitting the leadership for love triggering a leadership battle between Richard Leonard and Anas Sarwar that's increasingly unseemly even though left wing Leonard has already all but won thanks to
the now normal Labour practise of signing up lots of union members on the cheap.)
Because
Labour could, potentially, win if the previously
Labour but
now non-voters can be persuaded to start turning out and voting
Labour again, but only if the non-voting support base is fairly large, and without that sort of analysis over larger areas it's hard to judge — it's definitely partially true in my ward,
Labour had disappeared electorally years ago, but won the seat in 2012, despite most other parties getting similar votes to
normal (and our support mostly going to an Independent we were tacitly backing).
The ICM poll for the Guardian also included a voting intention question with Brown as
Labour leader, which showed the
now normal pattern of the Conservatives doing better against
Labour with Brown instead of Blair.