Jackie Baillie: Scottish Labour must oppose independence and indyref2

There are now clear dividing lines in the contest for Scottish Labour deputy leader.

Jackie Baillie has said Scottish Labour should oppose both Scottish independence and a second referendum.

While others claim this is a contest about what kind of future we have, the reality is that this is about whether we have a future at all. If we want to survive, we cannot go into another election with an inconsistent, muddled position on the constitution – as we did in 2019.

So I am clear: Scottish Labour must oppose independence; and oppose a second independence referendum.

People don’t join the Labour Party because they want to endlessly debate the constitution. It’s not in our DNA. Our fight is the fight against poverty and inequality, not a fight over currency and borders.

But Scottish politics is dominated by the constitution, and voters have a right to know where parties stand on our nation’s future. Labour supports remaining in the UK because we are a party of solidarity, and because independence would inflict deeper austerity on the most vulnerable in society.

We are a party of devolution and while there is a need to address how we get power closer to people in the nations and regions of the UK, that does not mean backing a referendum with separation on the ballot paper.

Some in my party are willing to walk into precisely the same trap that David Cameron walked into by agreeing to a referendum on EU membership when he didn’t want to leave. Look how that worked out for him.

We are nothing if we don’t hold true to our party’s values. We have just suffered a crushing General Election defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson, who now has a commanding majority in the Commons. But does that mean we now support the Tories’ cruel immigration policy or the creeping privatisation of the NHS? Of course not.

Yet my opponent Matt Kerr and his supporters like MSP Neil Findlay now want to define our indyref2 policy position based on Labour being defeated – proposing support for another referendum if the SNP has a majority after the 2021 election.

They fail to recognise that we are the third party in Holyrood, with only one MP at Westminster - Ian Murray - who won in Edinburgh South because he held firm against any attempt to pander to the SNP. We are fighting for our relevance and our survival.

At this crucial moment in our party’s history, I am not prepared to toss aside our values, and I am not prepared to be as pessimistic as Mr Kerr. I hold Labour members in much higher regard than that. I will never tell our activists who give up their weekends and evenings that their efforts are going to be in vain as I don’t accept that the SNP will have a majority in 2021.

So our starting point at the next election should be that we oppose independence and another referendum, but we must not get bogged down in an argument about process and mandates that only helps our opponents. The election must not be a proxy referendum on the constitution; it should be a referendum on this rotten SNP government and its catastrophic handling of public services.

We should not be distracted from exposing the SNP’s domestic record which is appalling - waiting times targets being missed; children dying after contracting infections in the nation’s flagship hospital; life expectancy down for the first time since records began; a growing attainment gap in our schools; and a budget which delivers more cuts to councils.

I regret that in the week the SNP decided to slash funding for local services which communities rely on, some Labour politicians have chosen to play the nationalists’ game rather than focus on holding the government to account. We have to learn the lessons of the last two elections when we plummeted to nine per cent in the European election and 18 per cent in the General Election – the worst result since 1910.

Matt Kerr and Neil Findlay chose the direction which led to those defeats, rapidly accelerating our decline. More of the same won’t cut it. That’s why we have to change.

If Scottish Labour members want someone who will never cosy up to the SNP, they should vote for me. I will always hold true to Labour’s principles of solidarity and togetherness, standing up for the people and the communities who need us most.