Lamont urges unions to reject SNP ‘student politics’

LABOUR leader Johann Lamont has told union chiefs there must be a straight question in the referendum on Scottish independence and urged them not to be taken in by the “student politics” of the SNP Government.

The Nationalists are relying on the unions and other groups across civic Scotland to back the inclusion of a “devo max” option on the referendum ballot paper, but Ms Lamont insisted yesterday that this was a “PR strategy to save their own skins”.

Ms Lamont was among the speakers at the STUC congress in Inverness and insisted she wants the Scottish Parliament to have “all the tools it requires” to fight poverty, inequality and injustice.

But she said: “As we have that debate, as we ask how we shape a vibrant Scotland within a UK which benefits all Scots, I ask you not to be seduced by the student politics of a Nationalist government which knows that Scotland will reject the separatist agenda at the heart of their politics and is looking for a PR strategy to save their own skins.”

The Labour leader added: “I ask you this. In any question, any debate about Scotland’s future government, wonder whether those who ask for your support really have social justice as their inspiration. Progressive politics is not something to be bolted on to another cause.”

And in a first address to congress from a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Reverend David Arnott called for a stand against the “great evils” of poverty and inequality.