Labour should 'lay out democratic route to independence referendum', says Scottish Labour MP

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Scottish Labour must “lay out a democratic route” to a Scottish independence referendum or never return to government again, an MP has said.

Brian Leishman said that Labour “must appeal to what was once a large chunk of our core vote that left us for the SNP” - although he insisted he was not saying the party should back independence.

The Alloa and Grangemouth MP said that Labour is currently “competing just for a small unionist vote”, which he said was “swimming in crowded waters and will never lead to us being in government”.

He added that Scotland is in “a constitutional deadlock” and that Labour not changing its position will result in it “heading for the irrelevance of perpetual opposition.”

It comes after Scottish Labour leadership candidates Joe Fagan and Michael Marra were unable to say how Scotland could have another referendum to leave the UK.

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Mr Leishman said during a House of Commons debate on the 2016 Brexit referendum on Wednesday morning: “Referendums have a vital place in our democracy. And with referendums, let's also acknowledge that they create uneasy alliances, awkward bed fellows.

“The impact of that is clear when looking at the Scottish Labour Party. Scotland, I’m afraid is still dominated by the constitutional question.

“Painting everyone as either a Nationalist or a Unionist has distracted Scots from the real political issue that affects us: that whether you're from Alloa or Aldershot or Stenhousemuir or Stoke - that politics is always about class.

“Class must be put back on the political agenda.

“Because when I listen to people back home, many do not what we stand for, or who we stand for any more.

“We must appreciate that by campaigning alongside Tories, who did so much damage to Scotland, then that has been seen as a betrayal of our class.

“If we ever want a Scottish Labour government in Holyrood again, then we must appeal to what was once a large chunk of our core vote that left us for the SNP.

“Do we not see that competing just for a small unionist vote is swimming in crowded waters and will never lead to us being in government?

“Now, I am not saying that we should back independence. What I am saying is that we should lay out the democratic route to having another referendum.

“And if we do that, then we will be back speaking to a huge number of Scots that left us.

“They might even listen to us again.

“Scotland needs to break the constitutional deadlock and Scottish Labour needs to shift from our position of dogged inflexibility otherwise, we are heading for the irrelevance of perpetual opposition.

“And we know that means never being able to put our Labour principles into action.”

He added that there should be a 25 year ban on another referendum as a condition of holding a second one: “Winning five elections in a row is a pretty obvious statement and a second referendum should come with the defined terms.

“If it’s another No result, then there should be an agreed timescale before there could be another one - for example, 25 years.

“And if Labour said yes to another referendum, then I think the SNP leadership would panic. Their whole strategy for governing in Scotland is modeled on the fact that there wouldn’t be a second referendum and the onus being shifted onto them to provide an argument for an independent Scotland would panic them.

“Scottish Labour should not have anything to fear about another independence referendum.”

The 2024 general election is the only time that Labour has beaten the SNP in a Westminster or Holyrood election since the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.

Labour’s stance since then has been to oppose a second independence referendum.

It has also refused to say how Scotland could become independent by democratic means.

A referendum would need to be granted by the UK Government, which has refused to do so under the Tories and Labour.

On Tuesday the Prime Minister’s spokesperson said: “Our position on Scottish referendums is is unchanged.”