THE SNP have ramped up pressure on Labour to “stop denying democracy” as division of indyref2 continues to split Anas Sarwar’s party.
Sarwar, who took the Scottish Labour reins just six weeks ago, has repeatedly rejected calls to back a fresh breakaway ballot.
The party is polling third behind the second-placed Tories and first-placed SNP in voting intention for the May 6 Scottish Parliament election, and at the weekend former Labour first minister Henry McLeish called on Sarwar’s team to “drop its blanket opposition to another referendum”, warning: “It will happen some time.”
That move came after Sarwar sacked Glasgow Kelvin candidate Hollie Cameron over her support for another independence referendum.
Cameron told the Sunday National her party “respects” the right to a new constitutional vote, saying “there are different opinions in the Labour Party”. Her removal sparked fierce condemnation from local activists and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell who called the row “another example of what Labour Party members from across the country are becoming increasingly anxious about – the flame of internal party democracy being slowly but systematically extinguished”.
READ MORE: SNP and Labour candidates criticise Scottish Labour decision to drop Hollie Cameron
Sarwar will go head-to-head with Scotland’s other main party leaders in a live debate on STV tonight, when the question of independence is expected to be prominent.
SNP deputy leader Keith Brown has made renewed calls to Sarwar over Labour’s stance, saying it “must learn from its past mistakes and stop denying democracy by siding with the Tories, yet again, to block a post-pandemic independence referendum”.
He added: “Labour risk being on the wrong side of history the longer they persist with this anti-democratic stance. They are entitled to oppose independence itself, but they have no right whatsoever to try and block a democratic mandate for a referendum.
“The central issue at this election is who gets the right to decide what sort of country Scotland becomes after the pandemic – people in Scotland or Boris Johnson? People in Scotland must be able to determine their own future – and Labour will not be forgiven if they hand control to Boris Johnson.”
He went on: “By working hand-in-hand with the Tories, backing austerity cuts and a hard Brexit, the Labour Party has destroyed its reputation in Scotland. If they won’t listen to their own party members and leading figures like former first minister Henry McLeish, Labour will fall into terminal decline.”
Scottish Labour was contacted for comment. McLeish, who led the then Scottish Executive from October 2000 to November 2001, said: “Merely saying no to a second independence referendum has never been a vote winner.
“It sounds negative, is interpreted as a denial of democracy and smacks of political panic.”
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