SNP should drop claim that Labour are simply 'Red Tories' – Scotsman comment

SNP should take their former Westminster leader Ian Blackford’s advice to drop the claim that Labour and Tories are the same and promote their own positive messages instead

Protesters at a 2015 rally in Glasgow against the Trident nuclear programme carry a banner that reads 'Red Tories out' (Picture: Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)

In May last year, Humza Yousaf claimed he'd been wrong about Labour. They were not merely “a pale imitation of the Tories”, but actually “a replica”. “Whether it is the blue Tories or red Tories in Number 10, they will continue policies that are harming Scotland,” he added.

It was a reheat of an SNP attack line that was much in evidence ahead of the 2015 general election, when the SNP won 56 out of 59 seats in Scotland. The charge gained traction with a public sick of five years of “Tory austerity” and desperate for an alternative. If Labour were no different to the Conservatives, what hope was there for the UK?

It is as untrue now as it was then, but its potency is much diminished. Fourteen years of Conservative government have provided a sharp contrast to the previous years of Labour control. Until the 2008 financial crash, Britain was doing well. Enough voters backed the Conservatives’ recovery plans in 2010, but the economy has struggled ever since.

After the Brexit obsession provided Boris Johnson with a landslide election victory, the Tories’ fortunes have been in decline, with his downfall over lockdown-breaking parties and repeated lies, the Liz Truss disaster and Rishi Sunak’s lacklustre attempts to steady the ship.

The distinction between the values of the current Conservative party, whose populist wing exerts far too much influence and is openly plotting to seize the leadership, and Keir Starmer’s pragmatic and liberal Labour party is as clear as the one between their track records in government.

Another factor that has reduced the power of the “red Tories” cry is the re-emergence of the SNP’s “Tartan Tories”. Suddenly, in some nationalist circles, being on the centre-right is not quite so heinous.

All this may help explain why Ian Blackford MP, former SNP Westminster leader, has now admitted that Labour and the Conservatives are “absolutely not” the same and his party should be honest about this, while pushing their own positive messages.

With democracy in retreat around the world, claims that voting changes nothing are dangerous. We endorse Blackford’s suggestion and hope others in his party will take heed.