Labour Party turmoil: 'There's a gulf between Brown and Alexander'

Published on Saturday 10 May 2008 11:20

LAST weekend, Gordon Brown must have thought things could not get much worse. On top of the gloomy economic outlook and the continuing fallout from the 10p tax row, Labour had just suffered its worst drubbing in the local elections in England and Wales for 40 years.

But he had not bargained on Wendy Alexander, his erstwhile ally, going on television and announcing an ill-thought out U-turn on the party's attitude to an independence referendum.

Her decision to call for a vote as soon as possible on the SNP's flagship policy took everyone by surprise and plunged the party into instant turmoil. It has dominated the news agenda ever since.

But a tactic designed to paint the Nationalists as "scared" to call a referendum on their key policy has instead left Ms Alexander looking flat-footed.

In one fell swoop, she has managed to embarrass the Prime Minister, double the size of Alex Salmond's grin and alienate the other opposition leaders, Annabel Goldie and Nicol Stephen.

However, Mr Brown's own handling of the issue when it was raised at Prime Minister's Questions made the situation even worse. Not only did he fail to back Ms Alexander, he tried to claim she had not called for an immediate referendum and added that "further decisions" would wait till after the Calman commission reported on more powers for Holyrood.

It is clear there is now a gulf between Mr Brown and Ms Alexander on one of the most important and potentially far-reaching issues of the times.

But Ms Alexander's decision to back a referendum means such a vote is now almost inevitable.

She would like a straight choice between independence or the Union – and Malcolm Chisholm has suggested the question should focus on remaining part of the UK. But as David McLetchie points out, Holyrood could be blocked on legal grounds from posing such a direct question and it may be the SNP's wording, asking for approval to negotiate independence, that has to be accepted.

Contrary to Labour's claims, the SNP has been consistent about its 2010 referendum date. But Ms Alexander still has a point about Mr Salmond's unwillingness to put independence to the test before then.

If Labour is going to stick to its new policy, the party now needs to take the fight to the SNP – but it needs to plan it better than Ms Alexander planned last weekend's spectacular own goal.