The
2014 Scottish Labour Party leadership election was an internal party election to choose a new leader and deputy leader of the
Scottish Labour Party, following the resignations of
Johann Lamont as leader and
Anas Sarwar as deputy. Lamont announced her decision in an interview with the
Daily Record on 24 October, saying that she was stepping down effective immediately because the
UK Labour Party treated the Scottish party as a "branch office of London". Lamont, who had won the
2011 leadership contest, thus becoming the first Scottish leader to have authority over Labour's Scottish MPs in the
House of Commons as well as in the
Scottish Parliament, was the second leader of a Scottish political party to resign in the wake of the
2014 independence referendum. Before her resignation,
Alex Salmond announced his intention to relinquish the role of
Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and
First Minister. Sarwar announced his own resignation on 30 October, saying he felt it was right for the party to elect a new leadership team.