Ex-Labour MP says Davidson should lead the pro-UK drive

RUTH Davidson would have to lead the campaign group to promote the UK if a second independence referendum was called, according to a former Labour MP. Tom Harris said the Scottish Tory leader would be the obvious choice because the Conservatives beat Labour to second place at the Holyrood election.

However, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: “We can’t leave it to Ruth Davidson.”

In the first referendum, Better Together was formed as a coalition of the three Unionist parties, with Labour figures handed most of the key roles. Although Labour was the senior partner, the party was hammered for its alliance with the Tories. Some senior figures believe last year’s General Election rout in Scotland, in which Labour was left with one seat, was largely down to teaming up with the Conservatives. With First Minister Nicola Sturgeon saying a second vote is “highly likely”, attention has turned to how a successor group to Better Together would look.

Harris, who lost his Westminster seat last year and who led the pro-Brexit campaign in Scotland, is opposed to a second independence referendum.

However, he predicted his party would boycott any future tie-up with the Tories: “Labour will refuse to get into another Better Together-type coalition – they will be wrong in doing so, but it is not the first wrong decision the Labour Party has made since 2014. It should be about saving the Union. It shouldn’t be about party advantage.”

He also said Davidson would front the group: “Ruth is now the leader of the opposition in Scotland. She would have to lead that campaign and that would be difficult for the Labour Party.

“But they are going to have to accept the judgment of the voters. It is not the Tory party that put Labour in this position. It’s the Labour Party that put the Labour Party in this position.”

Rennie, whose party also played a key role in Better Together, dismissed the idea of Davidson leading any campaign: “It’s really important there’s a progressive, centre-left moderate, pro-UK voice that is very strong, distinct and clear in this campaign. That’s why we can’t leave it to Ruth Davidson.”

He added that Sturgeon would “love” Davidson to be the leader of any official pro-UK campaign. Rennie accused the Tories of harming the Union: “They bungled the post-referendum victory by turning it into English nationalism.”

THE Better Together campaign that kept the Union intact in 2014 was based on a simple proposition.

Country was deemed to be more important than party: Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Tories put aside historic rivalries to fight for a supposedly higher cause. However, while Better Together helped win the referendum, its very existence proved to be a nightmare for its leading member.

Labour, which provided most of the personnel, suffered for its alliance with the Tories and has never recovered. Two years on, and with the First Minister seeming to move inexorably towards a second vote, a Better Together reunion is highly unlikely. If Labour took part in a similar coalition, it is almost certain there would be a revolt by party members. In any case, the result of May’s Holyrood election means Labour would not be the strongest voice in a new campaign. As former Labour MP Tom Harris has said, Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson as leader of the opposition would have to front the group, and that would mean the debate quickly becoming one framed around “Scotland versus the Tories”.

Let’s be clear: as a paper which supports independence, this would be good news for the Yes movement in terms of garnering votes. But it would leave the debate empty of substance. We need to work hard on answering the questions which proved problematic before — chiefly the economy. What does seem evident is that Labour’s decline is becoming part of the growing catalogue of events which is hastening the end of the Union.