Leonard defeated Anas Sarwar to win the 2017 Scottish Labour leadership election, succeeding Kezia Dugdale, and he later took on the role of Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work.

[4] He was inspired politically in his youth by Arguments for Socialism written by Tony Benn, a leftist Labour Member of Parliament and former cabinet minister.

[6] While a student, he had a summer job weeding wheat fields in Suffolk, East Anglia, after his family moved south to help his father find work.

[10] He then worked for 20 years as a GMB Scotland industrial organiser, a role in which he represented women, apprentices and young people on low pay.

Leonard served as Chair of the Scottish Labour Party from 2002 to 2003 but opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, marching against the war and describing the bombing of Baghdad as "awful".

[14][15] Shortly after his election as an MSP, he was given a junior role on the Scottish Labour frontbench as Shadow Economy Minister by leader Kezia Dugdale.

[18] Leonard received celebrity endorsement from cult comic book scribe Mark Millar, known for Kick-Ass and Kingsman, who said he was "the most exciting thing to happen up here in decades".

[20][21] Only a few hours after the leadership election result was declared, Kezia Dugdale announced she was set to join reality TV game show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's longest-serving constituency MSP, was appointed as Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work.

Leonard attended protests in Glasgow and outside the Scottish Parliament opposing the visit because of Trump's attitudes and actions towards women, ethnic minorities and the poor.

[29] Trump returned to Scotland while on a June 2019 royal visit and Leonard spoke at a protest rally outside St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh.

[30] In September 2018, Scottish Labour cut funding for Kezia Dugdale's defence in a defamation case by video games journalist and nationalist blogger Stuart Campbell.

[33] In leaked messages, Edinburgh South MP Ian Murray wrote, "Ultimately she won her case and the party lost £80,000 as they would've got their costs had they kept their promise."

He also wrote the decision was the "final straw" which caused her to leave Holyrood in 2019 and he angrily derided the Scottish Labour leadership as "full of thugs and incompetents".

[38] Following the resignation of Kezia Dugdale from the Scottish Parliament in 2019, former MSP and Transport Minister Sarah Boyack took her place on the Lothian regional list.

Leonard said the additions would strengthen his core team but admitted Scottish Labour would still "need to make a strong case" to win back voters.

[39] In April 2019, Anas Sarwar's case against Rutherglen councillor Davie McLachlan, who allegedly said "Scotland wouldn't vote for a brown Muslim Paki", was dropped by the National Constitutional Committee on a technicality.

[48] In leaked WhatsApp messages, the "soft Brexit" position taken by Leonard's campaign was criticised by Shadow Minister for Scotland Paul Sweeney, who wrote, "If it's like this then it's a bad misjudgement and I'm having nothing to do with it... Let's hope the NEC [National Executive Committee] kill this bullshit line."

Shadow Justice Secretary Daniel Johnson also resigned, citing the election result and a lack of clarity on Brexit from Leonard.

Leonard said the additions would strengthen his core team but admitted Scottish Labour would still "need to make a strong case" to win back voters.

[51][52] The core campaign pledge made by Leonard and Jeremy Corbyn was to invest an extra £70 billion in Scottish public services.

[64] He also suggested MSPs could face deselection for showing disloyalty, said attempts to oust him as leader were an "act of sabotage" and confirmed he would fight any challenger for the leadership.

His Westminster counterpart, Keir Starmer insisted he was "very proud" of Leonard's achievements and said, "I would like to thank Richard for his service to our party and his unwavering commitment to the values he believes in".

[74] However, according to The National, potential Labour donors allegedly told Starmer during a Zoom meeting that they would not donate to the Westminster party unless Leonard resigned.

[82] When questioned over this assertion in an interview with Novara Media's Ash Sarkar, Leonard said, despite having read Marx, he would not describe his politics as Marxist but rather a synthesis of "Scottish radicalism" and those of "post-industrial Utopians".

In the aftermath of his party's poor result in the 2019 European Parliament election, he subsequently agreed to shift his pursuit to the UK remaining in the EU.

[85] He has said he would support Scotland's red meat industry by investing more in abattoirs and rural supply chains, and would aim for full employment in the Highlands and Islands.

[86][87] On 24 September 2024 Leonard attended an emergency demonstration,[88] called by Glasgow Stop the War Coalition, relating to what the organisers described as a "...genocide in Gaza...[by]...Israel...extended to Lebanon".

[89] Posting photographs of the demonstration – including the hashtag #ceasefirenow – writing on social media site 'X', Leonard called for "Hands off Lebanon.