A LABOUR member who campaigned for a Yes vote in 2014 has warned Kezia Dugdale that her support for the Union after the prospect of a hard Brexit will cause further damage to the party.
Jamie Kerr called on Kezia Dugdale to avoid being fenced into opposition to a second independence referendum and urged her to adopt a “more flexible” stance towards the constitution.
“I think a Labour approach based on Unionism is going to damage the party even further, certainly in light of Brexit,” he said.
“It will alienate what we once considered to be core Labour voters who are now open to indyref2 and open to independence. Our Unionist voters see Labour as relatively weak on the Union and will default to vote for the Conservatives.”
He called for Dugdale to instead stress Labour’s commitment to being a party of social justice and accept there were different views among members on the constitution.
“We are neither a nationalist nor a Unionist party. We are a party of social justice. There are different routes of getting there and there is a range of views about how that can be achieved within the party, which in my view is not reflected in the current leadership which is Unionist,” he said.
“I don’t think the party has to come down on one side or the other of the constitutional debate. It should be left open to our members to campaign for whichever proposition they believe in will further the interests of social justice.”
He added: “I think Labour has to take a more flexible stance on the constitution because the world has changed significantly since the last independence referendum.
“It’s not clear where we are going with Brexit and Labour should not be ruling out a second independence referendum.”
Kerr, an immigration lawyer, spoke out as it emerged opposition to a new independence referendum will be at the heart of Scottish Labour’s spring conference.
The party said its conference slogan would be Together We’re Stronger, an echo of the Better Together campaign in the 2014 independence referendum, in a move which suggests the stance on the prospect of a second vote will be a key battleground in May’s local elections.
Dugdale said the phrase would convey her party’s opposition to a second referendum when it meets in Perth at the end of the month.
In a separate development, a former Labour MSP also urged the party to adopt a more conciliatory stance to members who opt to campaign for a Yes vote in the event of a second independence referendum.
Elaine Murray, who lost her Dumfries seat to the Tories last year and is standing for election to Dumfries Council, said that while she was against a second vote on independence, she believed members should be free to campaign as they wished.
“I don’t want to see another independence referendum. I don’t want us to be rehashing the arguments again as I don’t think it is good for the country,” she told The National.
“But if there is another independence referendum the party would have to accept that Labour supporters have different views on it. Some people want to campaign for Yes. Some people want to campaign for No.”
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