Why Labour is the real threat to the Union

IS there anything Labour wouldn’t sacrifice to get their grasping hands on the levers of power?

Certainly, we now know the party would allow the United Kingdom to be destroyed, if it helped propel Jeremy Corbyn and his comrades into Downing Street.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s announcement that Labour will no longer try to block a second Scottish referendum was a body blow to all Unionists – especially angry Labour MPs north of the Border, who feel betrayed by this policy reversal.

At a stroke, their ability to challenge the Scottish National Party over its Gadarene rush for independence has been shattered.

Mr McDonnell’s language was telling. The ‘English parliament’, he said, doesn’t have the right to defy the will of the Scottish people, if they vote for another plebiscite.

English parliament? He meant Westminster, of course – the Parliament of the United Kingdom. But this was more than just a slip of the tongue.

It feeds into the resentful narrative of Scottish Nationalists, who see themselves as being ruled by England, rather than partners in the most successful political union the world has ever known. To them, Westminster epitomises their subservience.

Northern Irish nationalists harbour a similar grievance, so naturally Mr McDonnell also sides with them.

Would there be anything left of the Union if he had his way? Would Wales be next to go? Cornwall perhaps?

It’s easy to see Labour’s motive for sucking up to the Scottish Nationalists. They have little or no chance of forming a majority government after the next election, but with SNP support, they just might cobble together a shabby coalition.

The price would inevitably be a second independence referendum and it is for this that Mr McDonnell is laying the ground.

The irony is that if Scotland did secede – giving up its 59 Westminster seats – Labour would probably never taste power again.

Who’d have thought the party that idolises Keir Hardie, Ramsay MacDonald and John Smith would so cynically and casually abandon the country of their birth?