Labour MP Ian Murray backs Lisa Nandy over Catalonia claims

Ian Murray was appearing on The Andrew Marr Show to talk about his deputy leadership bid when the host asked him if he agreed with Nandy’s remarks.

The UK Labour leadership contender provoked an outcry by suggesting the UK should “look to Catalonia” for lessons on how to defeat “narrow, divisive nationalism” in Scotland.

That’s despite police violence against voters in Catalonia’s 2017 independence referendum, during which elderly women were amongst those left bloodied and since which, key pro-indy figures have been jailed.

Nandy has since accused Yes-supporting Scots of “wilfully distorting” her words, which she said referred to Spanish socialism.

READ MORE: New Scot hits back at Labour MP Lisa Nandy's independence claims

Yesterday, Marr asked Murray if he agreed with Nandy. The Edinburgh South MP said he “absolutely” does, adding: “It’s been spun out of control, in terms of what Lisa Nandy’s said. 

“The way to defeat nationalism in this country and to keep our UK together, because our UK matters, is to have a progressive, centre-left Labour government at Westminster.”

Appearing on Sky News, Nandy said people were “fed up” with “nonsense” and suggested the “level of debate in this country” should rise.

Responding, the SNP’s Mhairi Black said: “I find it incredible the number of self-declared ‘internationalists’ who refuse to educate themselves about different nations before making public statements about them. That would certainly help raise the level of debate.”

Meanwhile, Murray also agreed with Marr’s suggestion that “if Labour can’t revive in Scotland, then it’s almost impossible to imagine a Labour party forming a majority government again”.

READ MORE: How dare Lisa Nandy accuse my Government of a frankly appalling record

The MP said it was “one of the rules of British politics, that a Labour government at UK level has to run through Scotland” and opposing independence could help make it “credible” again.

He said the case for a federal UK should be made, stating: “Let’s make the positive case for the United Kingdom, let’s make the case of why independence is bad and let’s try and say to the public, not just in Scotland but across the United Kingdom, that our UK actually matters.”

Rejecting the idea that Scottish Labour should split from the UK party to improve its results, Murray – who said previous “titans” like Robin Cook and Donald Dewar prove the need for a Scottish deputy leader – said: “We’re a UK party and I think we have to act as a UK party.

“The Scottish Labour Party actually has more autonomy than any other part of the UK Labour Party, but it isn’t used.

“Let’s use that autonomy, and that takes away any issues around becoming a separate party.”

READ MORE: Ruth Wishart: What Gordon Brown fails to grasp about independence

However, he said the party should “never again” enter into a General Election campaign “where it’s run by London and others around the country are screaming out for resources and targeting”.

“We shouldn’t be having seats lost by several hundred (votes) when there are thousands of activists in seats we’ll never win.”

Meanwhile, ex-PM Gordon Brown has called for a UK-wide constitutional convention to deliver a “radical alternative to nationalism”.

Writing in The Observer newspaper, Brown suggested that “if Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England’s regions come together as a pressure group for a ‘Britain beyond the south-east’, their demands could become irresistible and each would carve out a new role and status within the UK”.

He said this “constitutional revolution” could stop powers returned from Brussels from being held by Whitehall.

Calling for the Treasury to hand over some funding decisions to “new councils of the north and Midlands”, the former Chancellor – who served as prime minister from 2007-2010 – wrote: “If the United Kingdom is to survive, it will have to change fundamentally, so that Scotland does not secede and our regions can once again feel part of it.”