Plea for Labour IndyRef U-turn
Senior figures’ policy plea
Senior Labour figures in Scotland last night turned the heat on leader Richard Leonard to change the party’s stand on IndyRef2.
They want MSPs to have the right to decide when to have the vote – not the Government in London.
Richard Leonard was last night under pressure from his own shadow cabinet to back MSPs’ right to decide on a second independence referendum.
The Scottish Labour leader has reacted to SNP demands for a new poll next year by insisting a mandate would only be achieved following a nationalist victory in the 2021 Holyrood election.
But a number of senior figures yesterday came out in favour of a policy change after the party was left with just one MP north of the Border.
Shadow health secretary Monica Lennon has stressed she was still opposed to the SNP’s independence plans.
But she said: “People in Scotland have voted in very large numbers for the SNP, including many Labour voters.
“As expected, Nicola Sturgeon is presenting that as an endorsement of her party and will now ask the UK Government to permit a second referendum on independence.
“If Boris Johnson isn’t prepared to grant this request, he should allow the Scott ish Parliament to decide.
“The SNP blueprint for independence is f lawed and wi l l d i sappoint many prog ressive Scot s who are fed up with austerity. Nevertheless, the future of Scotland must be decided by the people of Scotland.
“We mus t l ook forward as a par ty and a movement and respond to the challenges that a post- Brexit landscape will bring.”
Meanwhile, Alison Evison, president of COSLA and leader of the Labour group on Aberdeenshire Council, came out in support of a future Scottish independence referendum.
In a post on Twitter, she said democracy must be “at the core of all we do”.
She said: “Recently, it has become fragile and we must strengthenen it again.
“We can strengthen it by enabling the voice of Scotland to be heardard through its formal processes and thatat must mean a referendum on independence.”ence.”
The MSP added: “If the people accept a new prospectus for independence,pendence, then so be it. That is democracyracy and, if it happens, Labour shouldd offer its own prospectus for a progressive,sive, socialist, outward- looking and egalitarian independent country.”
Former Scot t ish Labourabour minister Malcolm Chisholmholm tweeted: “Hope manyy of those against or undecidedided
( me i nc luded) aboo u t independence will get behindnd incontrovertible democratictic demand for IndyRef2.
“Hardest of hard Brexits and intolerable Johnson not what many No Voters had in mind in 2014.”
But Leonard has so far refused to change hiss position. He said: “Thehe precedent of 2011 into 2014 was you win a successful electiontion at HHolyrood because the request lies in the hands han of the Scottish Parliament. So our argument argu has been the mandate for a request requ would be dependent on the outcome of a future Scottish Parliament election. “ThThere is an agitation for a referendum next nex year and we will have discussions about abou that but the view that we have taken up tot now is that we wouldn’t support a request requ for an early referendum.”
Ian Ia Murray is now Scotland’s only Labour Lab MP after the party won just 18.5 per cent of the votes in Scotland – down dow 8.5 points from the last election. ShadowS Scottish secretary Lesley Laird lost los her seat to Neale Hanvey, who was su suspended by the SNP for posting antiSemitic Se comments on social media. She was among officials to attend an emergency em meeting of Labour’s Scottish Executive Exec Committee in Glasgow yesterday. Asked A whether UK Labour leader Jeremy
Corbyn should quit immediately, she said: “Everybody’s always raw after events like this and I think making decisions on kneejerk reactions is not the right thing to do.”
Corbyn has said he would not contest another election as leader but he would not “walk away” until a successor is elected.
The Labour Party’s manifesto said it would refuse a request to hold another referendum on Scottish independence in the “early years” of government if it had won the election.
On whether Scottish Labour should change this position, Laird added: “Constitutional politics north or south of the Border doesn’t serve the Labour Party well and we need to be careful not to be seen to be as popularist as everybody else.”
John McDonnel l, meanwhi le, has confirmed he will not be part of Labour’s next shadow cabinet following the party’s crushing defeat. The shadow chancellor,
who played a prominent role in the election campaign, said “I’ve done my bit” and suggested a big reshuff le of Labour’s front-bench team will now take place.
McDonnell added that while “Jeremy was the right leader”, it was time for the party to “move on” under new leadership.
He is expectedpected to stay in place until a new leaderader and new front-frontbench teamam is formed.
The electionection saw Labour swept asideide by the Conservativesatives in its Midlandsdlands he a r t l a nd s , north Walesles and north-easternstern England, w i th Corbyn’s’s party securing the fewest number of seats since 1935. McDonnell, who retained the Hayes and Harlington seat he has held since 1997 in Thursday’s election, added that Corbyn had been “demonised by a smear campaign against him” conducted by the media. Positioning in the race to become the next Labour leader has already started, with ardent Remainer David Lammy having confirmed he is conconsidering putting his name forward.forward Others being touted to take over includeinc Lisa Nandy, Nandy Rebecca Long- Long Bailey, Angela Ange Rayner, Keir Starmer, Jess Jes Phillips andan Emi ly Thornberry. Th McDonnell M hasha named s hadow business secretary Long-Bailey, shadow education secretary Rayner and shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon as part of a “new generation” who could be expected to take leading positions.
He added: “In those seats we have lost, it is about listening to people.
“I think it wasn’t just Brexit – I think a long history of maybe 40 years of neglect and them saying to politicians, ‘ You never listen to us and you have allowed our community to be run down in this way’.
“I am hoping that will enable us to construct a programme to address those issues but it has got to be from the grassroots and community upwards.”