Analysis: UK Labour's policy shifts put Scottish party in a tricky position

Recent rows recall Johann Lamont’s infamous ‘branch office’ swipe

Johann Lamont's infamous swipe at her colleagues down south may be playing on some minds of late. In 2014, Ms Lamont resigned as Scottish Labour leader after accusing the UK party of treating Scotland like a "branch office".

"Just as the SNP must embrace that devolution is the settled will of the Scottish people, the Labour Party must recognise that the Scottish party has to be autonomous and not just a branch office of a party based in London,” she said. The criticism was seized on by the SNP and has haunted the party ever since.

Recent events have brought it to the fore once again. Last week, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was left in a sticky position after Sir Keir Starmer said a UK Labour Government would retain the two-child limit on claiming some benefits.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar

This is a Tory policy that has been repeatedly slammed by Labour politicians north and south of the border. Mr Sarwar called it "heinous", while his deputy, Jackie Baillie, previously compared it to measures in Communist China.

Mr Sarwar said the Scottish party continues to oppose the two-child cap, but argued a Labour government "will inherit economic carnage and that means we will not be able to do everything we want".

"We will continue to press any incoming UK Labour government to move as fast as they can within our fiscal rules to remove this heinous policy,” he told a newspaper. Whatever the merits of his position, it's not a comfortable one. There is internal unhappiness over the situation – particularly on the left of the party.

And then there's the troublesome issue of gender reform. Anneliese Dodds, UK Labour’s shadow secretary for women and equalities, has pledged her party will “modernise, simplify and reform” the gender recognition process. However, she also made clear the requirement for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria will remain.

"Last year, the Scottish National Party’s cavalier approach to reforming gender recognition laws seemed to be more about picking a fight with Westminster than bringing about meaningful change,” she wrote in The Guardian. “The safeguards that were proposed to protect women and girls from predators who might abuse the system were simply not up to scratch. As a result, the Scottish Government is still picking up the pieces, with trans rights no further forward. We will not make the same mistakes.”

The problem with this argument, of course, is that Scottish Labour backed the changes in Scotland and voted for the proposed legislation in Holyrood. Again, there is internal unhappiness over the position taken by the UK party.

"Scottish Labour continues to support the demedicalisation of the process in Scotland,” said Paul O’Kane, Scottish Labour’s social justice spokesman, on Monday.

Sir Keir has his eyes on the keys to Downing Street. His party believes power is within its grasp, and that this requires compromise and difficult choices. For his part, Mr Sarwar may feel he can live with some internal discomfort if it means helping the party win power in Westminster.

He is clear his party’s positions have not changed. But the narrative pushed by Ms Dodds certainly didn’t acknowledge Scottish Labour’s stance. Almost nine years later, Ms Lamont’s words have yet to lose their bite.