THE Scottish Conservatives have reacted furiously as it emerged that 25 Labour candidates for the upcoming council elections have backed holding indyref2 or independence outright.
Seven candidates have expressed explicit support for Scotland leaving the Union, 10 suggested they support independence and a further eight have indicated support for a new referendum to be held, according to the Scottish Daily Mail.
It amounts to around 6% of all the Scottish Labour candidates standing across the country.
It came after Scottish Labour chief Anas Sarwar pledged that all candidates at the May elections would be “pro-UK”, but said he wouldn’t place a ban on running hopefuls who previously voted Yes.
With both Labour and the Tories battling it out for Unionist votes at the upcoming ballot, Douglas Ross’s party reacted angrily to the news that a handful of Labour hopefuls are sympathetic to the independence cause.
Annie Wells, a Tory MSP for the Glasgow region, accused the few candidates of wanting to break up Britain.
“They’ve promised no pro-independence candidates would be standing but there’s indisputable evidence that many Labour candidates are in favour of breaking up Britain,” she said.
“Labour are already in coalition with the SNP in six councils right now. After May’s election, if they have the chance, they’ll do a dodgy deal with the Nationalists again.”
She later added: “If Scottish Labour can't be trusted to stand up for the Union, they certainly can't be trusted to stand up to the SNP.”
Sarwar has said Labour would not do any deals with the SNP, but Glasgow City Council’s SNP chief Susan Aitken has said ruling that out would be “foolish”.
Scottish Labour candidates backing independence include Tom Morton in Shetland, who in 2017 said he’d vote Yes at indyref2, and Euan Stainbank in Falkirk who said a former No campaigner he’d vote Yes and probably also help to campaign for independence.
Last year Fife candidate Mary Bain Lockhart called herself a “non-Nationalist who supports independence”.
One candidate in Edinburgh, Ross McKenzie, called on Labour to accept that a pro-independence majority in Holyrood is a mandate for indyref2. Another standing in Irvine East warned his party that Labour would “become irrelevant” if it continues to oppose a new referendum.
READ MORE: West Lothian council election 2022: Is this time up for Labour?
In response to the report, Scottish Labour said 21 of the 25 candidates listed had “confirmed they support Labour’s position” on the constitution.
The spokesperson told the newspaper: “The Scottish Labour Party believes in Scotland’s place in a reformed United Kingdom. Convincing people who supported independence to support the UK is the only way to end the divisive politics of nationalism.”
Later, one of the candidates named took to social media to state that they are no longer pro-independence.
Stainbank wrote: “I'm not pro independence, if I was I wouldn't be standing.
“I volunteered aged 14 handing out leaflets in Falkirk for Better Together. Almost 3 years ago the prospect of Boris changed my mind, it was the @ScottishLabour party not the tories that changed it back.”
The SNP have been contacted for comment.
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