Scottish Labour has been accused of keeping independence off its leadership ballot after Monica Lennon failed to secure enough support from the party’s MSPs and MPs to enter the contest.
The SNP says Lennon’s exclusion also sidelines the voices of three trade unions which backed her candidacy, including Unite and Unison.
Her departure leaves Michael Marra and Joe Fagan competing for the Scottish Labour leadership in an all male contest.
But for the SNP, the significance goes beyond who will become the party’s next leader.
Lennon was the candidate it identified as being open to giving people in Scotland another opportunity to decide the country’s constitutional future.
With Lennon now off the ballot, Scottish Labour members will not have that option when choosing their new leader.
The SNP argues that this effectively keeps the independence question out of the leadership contest before ordinary party members have even had an opportunity to vote.
It has also focused heavily on Lennon’s support from the trade union movement.
Unite and Unison have more than 300,000 members in Scotland between them, according to the SNP, yet their backing was not enough to overcome the requirement for support from Labour parliamentarians.
The leadership contest will now be fought between Marra and Fagan following a campaign already marked by accusations of sexism and claims surrounding potential redundancies, with Jackie Baillie backing Fagan.
SNP MSP Collette Stevenson said:
“The Scottish Labour Party claim to be “the party of working people”, but they have silenced Trade Unions and used underhand tactics to keep Monica Lennon off the ballot paper.
“Monica Lennon was rightly open to giving the Scottish people the right to decide their own future, a simple concept of democracy that the Scottish Labour Party has once again moved to deny the Scottish people.
“Two blokes will now compete in a contest that has descended into bitter infighting and vicious attacks with 300,000 members of Unite and Unison disregarded.
“It’s the same old story for the Scottish Labour Party as they refuse to engage with the reason for their defeat, you cannot deny democracy to Scotland and expect the trust of our people.”
The argument gives the SNP two obvious lines of attack against Scottish Labour from the same leadership contest.
One concerns a party founded in the labour movement holding a leadership election without the candidate backed by three trade unions.
The other concerns Scotland’s constitutional future.
Lennon’s presence would have put a different position on independence before Scottish Labour members and potentially forced the issue into the leadership debate.
Her absence means that argument will not now be tested at the ballot box.
Michael Marra and Joe Fagan will contest the leadership and Scottish Labour members will decide between them.
But on independence, the choice has already been made for them.
