LAST week city council leader Gordon Matheson announced he has thrown his hat in the ring for the job of deputy leader of Scottish Labour.

It will be a tough battle but if he gets the role, the council boss will be put to the top of the Glasgow list for next year's Holyrood elections ensuring he becomes a MSP.

Until recently, Mr Matheson's announcement would have sent senior Labour councillors into a tizzy as they started the process of deciding who would be the next person to take the role of leader of Scotland's largest council.

Leadership contests in the past have proved exciting affairs with the backers of the various individuals in the running for the top job battling like ferrets in a sack.

But times have changed and Labour can no longer guarantee it will sweep the boards at the next council elections in 2017.

No Labour councillor wants to be the first in living memory to land the job of Labour leader only for his or her party to fail to win enough seats to hold onto the City Chambers.

I doubt any of our present councillors wants to face the ignominy of leading the party which has governed the city for generations into opposition.

It will be interesting to see which of them is brave enough to put their heads above the parapet if Mr Matheson heads to Edinburgh.

And what of Mr Matheson.

Insiders suggest he will have a fight on his hands if his dream of becoming deputy leader of Scottish Labour is to become a reality.

But anyone who knows the council boss, knows he is no walkover - he wouldn't be council leader if he was.

However, it may well be when the votes are cast that his political opponents choose someone else to be second in command.

What does Mr Matheson do then. He has no doubt thought that through but at the moment is keeping his views to himself as he prepares for the first round in his campaign to get to Holyrood.

Given the announcement last week, nobody could blame councillors if they wanted to run for the hills.

Each year, for what seems like an eternity, the city council has had its budget cut and has had to find savings from wherever it could.

Jobs have gone through voluntary redundancy and early retiral, departments have merged and today every penny is counted.

Now we are told the council will have to cut 3000 jobs and make savings of at least £100million in the next two years.

Mr Matheson has warned the cuts to come will be beyond anything councillors have had to deal with in the past.

Whoever is at the helm in the City Chambers after the local government elections in May 2017 is likely to be facing some decisions they would rather not take - especially if they want to get re-elected.

Who would be a politician.