Eddie Barnes: Independence referendum leaves Scottish Labour stuck between a rock and a hard place

AFTER David Cameron’s dramatic challenge to the SNP on the referendum this week, Scottish Labour is facing a rock-and-hard-place dilemma.

On the rock are the Nationalists, wooing the country towards independence or a more autonomous state. Over at the hard place, is Mr Cameron, planting the British flag in the soil, and insisting on a fight to the death. Scottish Labour swims in between, unsure which side to take.

Instinctively, Labour (especially in Scotland) would always prefer to line up against the Conservatives. May’s election campaign illustrated that in spades.

And while Donald Dewar happily joined up with Alex Salmond to campaign in 1997 for devolution, the party has run a mile from suggestions it should team up with Mr Cameron to save the Union. With its genuine pro-devolutionary heart, and an increasing desperation to show it is “positive” about Scotland, it would seem a no-brainer for Scottish Labour to find common cause with the SNP against “Westminster Tories”.

But that ignores the hard politics of the situation. The coming referendum may primarily be about deciding Scotland’s future, but it is a proxy for the ultimate fight between Scotland’s two political heavyweights. Whichever party is seen to lose – SNP or Labour – can expect a bleak future, if it has one at all.

So, the stakes are high and party chiefs are determined to limit the ground on which the SNP fights the coming vote. Party tacticians want to ensure that the only way the SNP can claim victory after the referendum is if people do indeed support independence. That means adopting the same tactics that Mr Cameron has espoused: insisting there isn’t a question on “devo max”. “We want to stop Mr Salmond from winning a consolation prize,” says one figure.

So, while Labour leader Johann Lamont is likely to support more devolution in principle over the coming months, equally she will argue that that issue is for after the referendum, not before. Until then, the issue is independence – period.

But as the past 48 hours have shown, siding with the Tories in Scotland is, as Mr Salmond’s advisers like to put it “the ultimate losing position in Scottish politics”. Mrs Lamont got out her retaliation early yesterday, calling for cross-party and civic talks on when a referendum should take place. “This issue is far too important to become a fight between the two things Scotland rejects – separation and the Tories,” she declared. Caught between the rock and the hard place, it is clear she is trying to find her own ground on which to stand.

She can expect Mr Salmond to send a flotilla of torpedoes into that tomorrow, when the pair meet for First Minister’s Questions. More importantly, Labour’s stance also shows that the party is opting for a huge gamble.

For if it gets its way, and a straight choice – in or out of the UK – is put before the people, then there are no safety nets for anyone involved. And, on recent form, it’s not the SNP that’s been crashing to earth.