Commenting ahead of the Labour manifesto launch today (Thursday), SNP Depute Leader Keith Brown (pictured) said that the party was completely out of touch with its own supporters and with Scotland – and is leaving the key decisions about the country’s future in the hands of the Tories.
An Ipsos Mori poll published earlier this week found that two-thirds of 2019 UK Labour voters would support a referendum if a pro-independence majority is returned at the election.
In a move which has heaped further pressure on the Scottish Labour leader, his Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford recently said he has always believed that “if a party won an election in Wales with a referendum on independence in its manifesto then it would’ve won the right to hold such a referendum.”
Meanwhile, the STUC yesterday passed a motion backing a referendum in Scotland if there is a pro-independence majority after the election.
Polls also show that Boris Johnson’s Tories are moving further and further ahead of Labour under new leader Keir Starmer, leaving open the prospect of the Tories continuing to govern Scotland for another decade – regardless of how people in Scotland vote.
SNP Depute Leader Keith Brown said:
“Labour may have yet another new leader, but it’s the same old anti-democratic position of denying the people of Scotland’s right to determine their own future – they are completely out of touch with their own supporters.
“Anas Sarwar is also at odds with the trade unions, who have made clear their support for the basic democratic principle that there should be a referendum if the people of Scotland vote for one.
“Rather than letting the people of Scotland decide what kind of recovery they want to build after the pandemic, a vote for Labour means leaving the key decisions about Scotland’s future in the hands of Boris Johnson and the Tories.
“That means all the damage to jobs and the economy of Brexit, the obscene waste of money on more nuclear weapons and as well as more Tory attacks on the funding and powers of the Scottish Parliament.
“This is a crucial moment in our country’s history – and when the crisis of the pandemic has passed, the people of Scotland should have a right to decide if they want to choose a better future of independence to help drive the recovery.
“If Labour continue to sit on the fence, their terminal decline in Scotland will only continue.”
