A FORMER Labour minister has said there is no future for Labour in Scotland if it continues to be a Unionist party.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday National in the wake of leader Richard Leonard’s resignation, Les Huckfield said that unless the party changed its stance on independence it was “never going to get anywhere”.

Huckfield said that although he shared Leonard’s left-wing stance he could not understand why he was not only opposed to independence but also to another referendum.

“To many of us on the left Richard was a breath of fresh air but it is no use being a breath of fresh air and a Unionist at the same time,” said Huckfield, who was under-secretary of state for industry in the late 70s but left the party in 2003 as a result of the war in Iraq.

He said he did not know the reason behind Leonard’s shock resignation this week but speculated it was because Labour is predicted to perform badly in May’s Holyrood election.

“It could be that Richard feels Labour is not going to do very well at all in May so it could be ‘get out while you can’,” he said.

Huckfield added that no matter who took over, Labour’s prospects would not improve if he or she led the party as a Unionist one.

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“I just don’t think there is a future for it,” he said. “If you have a look at who gets the Unionist votes in Scotland it is clearly the Tories although how they are going to be able to sustain that, in view of Johnson’s Brexit deal and what is happening in the fishing industry, God only knows.

“Everything that a lot of us said would happen as a result of Brexit is now happening – the fishing industry is going to be decimated, a hell of a lot more people are going to be losing their jobs, workers’ rights are going to be curtailed so how much longer the Tories will be able to hang on to their base in view of that I don’t know.”

Huckfield, who has voted SNP since moving to Scotland in 2004, hopes and believes the party can pick up votes from disillusioned voters.

“Johnson is such a clown, his government can’t do anything properly and maybe even on Covid alone all the people in Scotland are starting to say we really can’t tolerate any more of this,” he said.

“However I don’t think the Labour Party is going to be in a position to pick up any of those votes if it remains a Unionist party.

“There is a difficulty at the moment about what a left party does in England as well but it is a problem that is compounded here because of the independence issue and in many cases, unfortunately, the Labour Party in Scotland has lost touch with its base.”

Huckfield said the issue in Scotland now was what kind of country it would be following independence.

“I think the argument has essentially moved on. I am not saying we can take independence for granted as there is still a long way to go but a lot of the argument has moved on and I just don’t think the Labour Party features in that argument at all,” he said.

“I am not saying that the SNP is always going to be the major left party in Scotland, but I have to say I don’t see a future at all for Labour as long as it [is] a Unionist party.”