How Labour is focussed on trying to win over Reform voters – not Scots

We’re all paying the price of Westminster politicians pandering to populism, writes Stephen Gethins

It won’t come as news to any readers of this column, where I argue that the quest for Independence must be outward looking and internationally focused, but multilateralism, the pooling and sharing of sovereignty in partnership with our democratic European neighbours, is the best way for Scotland to protect its rights, security and economic well-being.

This is the model embraced by our neighbours across Europe in countries such as Finland, Denmark, the Baltic states, Czechia and others who see their sovereignty, independence and the well-being of their citizens as being tied up in European cohesion and integration. To that end, the model of union offered by the EU is one that is embraced by significantly more Europeans than the rather lonely UK one.

Nowhere has that been more enthusiastically embraced than in Ireland. The Empire podcast recently undertook a characteristically excellent and insightful series on our cousins to the west. The Irish journalist and author, Fintan O’Toole, was asked whether independence had been worth the effort for the Irish and his response was telling.

He said that once Ireland joined the EU, the answer was emphatically yes. The same goes for any number of member states across Europe which have become wealthier and fairer after joining, with Baltic states celebrating 21 years of EU membership that have transformed their countries and their citizens’ lives.

Ireland has done very well out of European Union membership, but the UK looks increasingly insular and lonely (Picture: Paul Faith) | AFP via Getty Images

Insular and unpromising

Frankly there has never been a better time to argue for independence in Europe and advocates, like me, must place that European question at the heart of the case. Similarly arguments for remaining part of the UK have never looked more introverted, insular and bluntly unpromising.

This was amplified during a recent debate in the Commons on whether Scotland should have some powers over migration. An idea Scottish Labour pledged to address before the general election and senior Brexit campaigners, like the soon-to-be Lord Gove, promised before the EU referendum.

There are decentralised migration measures in other states such as Canada and Australia so this wouldn’t be unique. It’s also an area where the care, hospitality and tourism sectors among others have made a case for a Scottish specific approach and think tanks such as Reform Scotland and even the Law Society of Scotland have addressed the need and some of the practicalities involved.

Rather than engage in the substance of the debate, Labour MPs’ contributions focused on the problems they had with the proposals and nothing on their pre-election commitments. The language deployed by some Labour MPs spoke of discomfort with the debate, with some remarks that would not have been out of place from Reform.

Labour’s nationalistic tone

One senior parliamentarian talked of ‘watchtowers’ on the border and others of Stoke or the Isle of Sheppey in Kent being on a par with Scotland. The Secretary of State for Scotland, who I know has in the past been a progressive voice in parliament, endorsed the Home Office’s ambitions of driving down any migration, something that will be damaging to a number of Scottish businesses.

At a time when democratic Europe’s economies and societies are moving closer together, the isolationist and nationalistic tone struck by Labour, in keeping with that of their counterparts in Reform and the Conservatives, was revealing. One experienced Labour MP argued that Scotland couldn’t have any devolution of migration because of our “national economy and national supply chain”.

It has been some time since any developed European economy has been able to rely on either and this argument is closer to those put forward by right-wing Brexit purists about UK self-reliance, wilfully ignoring the realities of Europe’s increasingly integrated markets.

This is not restricted to economic arguments. Even in the aftermath of the EU referendum, there was a recognition by Labour of the need to address the loss of rights suffered by UK citizens, particularly young people.

Yet the painful process of agreeing even a very limited Youth Mobility Scheme that would leave young people with fewer rights than before, is yet to be completed, with Labour MPs keen to stress that even this unambitious alternative would be capped and most would still be denied opportunities enjoyed previously.

Canada’s Liberals show the way

Thursday’s local election results will only make matters worse. Reform’s gains have reportedly encouraged Labour to head even further to the right. Not only is that the wrong approach, we should be taking Reform on rather than appeasing them, it will also (further) alienate Scottish voters.

That doesn’t seem to matter with Labour determined to chase Reform voters rather than Scots who may have given it the benefit of the doubt in last year’s general election.

My party still has its work cut out and there’s a lot of campaigning and politics to be done before next year’s Holyrood election. However, politicians in my party and elsewhere could do worse than look for lessons from elections not in England’s shires but rather across the Atlantic in Canada.

There former Bank of England governor Mark Carney delivered an unexpected win and fourth term for the Liberals, not by aping the language of populists but taking on their arguments head on.

He has form in that and was an effective voice for good sense during his time at the bank as the UK plunged headfirst into the abyss of a Brexit that he predicted would leave the UK struggling and people worse off. He was right and we’re all paying for Westminster politicians pandering to populism, something he flagged to Canadian voters on the run-up to election day.

The UK has rarely been more inward looking than it is now. That may benefit those of us advocating for independence, but it is to the detriment of politics in these islands. As the First Minister has illustrated, politicians can highlight the shallowness of Reform and Westminster’s lunge to the right by rejecting its ideas and the language that got us into this mess. Our neighbours get it, time we did too.

Stephen Gethins is the MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry