SENIOR Labour figures are calling for leader Keir Starmer to make the party the “voice of the Union” in attempts to win back Scottish voters.
Allies of Starmer say the party’s machinery in Scotland needs to be overhauled if Labour is to replace the Tories as the main opposition to Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP.
As a new report revealed Labour would need to win Jacob Rees-Mogg’s seat to gain power in Westminster without a big revival in Scotland, shadow business minister Lucy Powell warned Starmer he would need to make “substantial gains” from the SNP.
One Starmer ally told the Telegraph that the case for changing Labour’s image in Scotland is becoming more urgent, with focus groups indicating voters feel the party is “irrelevant”.
One said the party had been “all over the place” on the issue of a second Scottish independence referendum. About a third of Scottish Labour voters are thought to support Scottish independence, according to polling.
READ MORE: Senior councillor says Labour’s indyref2 vow is ‘tone-deaf’
A senior Labour frontbencher said: “I am also getting feedback from Scotland that it’s getting worse rather than better.
“The Labour Party has got to become a convincing party of the Union.
“The way you win back Scotland is by saying we are the voice of the Union, Keir Starmer can win...and the Scots can see that in a General Election there is utility in voting for the Labour Party.
“The Tories are generally unpopular, but have done much better than us because they have picked up all the unionist votes.”
Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard recently made clear that the party will enter the 2021 Holyrood elections opposed to a fresh indyref.
Following Labour’s loss of six seats to the SNP at the December election, some high-profile Labour figures had indicated a rethink was needed on their stance – suggesting they should no longer reject the idea of a second referendum.
However following Starmer’s election, and the appointment of pro-Union Ian Murray as shadow Scottish secretary, those calls have faded into the background.
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