Corbyn aide: ‘We must win Yes voters’

A former senior aide to Jeremy Corbyn has urged the Labour party to “stop the phoney war” around a second referendum on Scottish independence and instead pursue a strategy which “speaks to yes voters” if it wants to revive its fortunes.

Tommy Kane, who worked as the Scotland advisor to the former Labour leader, stressed that the party’ selectoral prospects in Scotland depended on shifting its arguments around inde - pendence, and said it has to “get out the undemocratic bind of the talk of blocking another referendum.”

He warned Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Corbyn’s successor, that he “won’t win Scotland if he does not set out a positive Labour vision for Scotland,” and called on the party to engage with the “substantive arguments on independence”.

He also accused Sir Keir of “going Awol ”on the issues of radical federalism and a constitutional convention.

Writing in the latest edition of the Scottish Left Review, Mr Kane said that under Mr Corbyn, there was a recognition that independence could be opposed on the basis of “solid social and economic reasons,” but cautioned that “perpetually opposing” a referendum “ultimately plays into the SNP’S hands”.