SCOTTISH Labour will not discipline anyone joining Labour For Independence despite the party’s rules explicitly stating that any member of an unapproved “political organisation” should be expelled.
The National revealed last week that Labour For Independence (LFI) was mounting a recruitment drive in defiance of the Party’s official anti-independence policy, and organiser Scott Abel last night welcomed the news that LFI will be able to do so without the threat of expulsion hanging over party members.
The Labour Party nationally confirmed to The National that the matter “is entirely for Scottish Labour” so it would appear that LFI can recruit party members with impunity, as long as it does not affiliate to the SNP or any other party.
Scottish Labour’s policy is against independence but the party tolerated Labour For Independence ahead of the September 2014 referendum “for fear of bad headlines”, as one senior Labour member put it at the time.
Two years ago, Kezia Dugdale suggested that she would allow MPs and MSPs to campaign for a Yes vote in a second independence referendum but the party’s stance since then has hardened and Scottish Labour is officially against a second indyref while Dugdale is for a new Act of Union, wording which UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has rejected.
The issue revolves around the words “political organisation”. Labour’s rule book (clause 2.4.1.B) states: “A member of the Party who joins and/or supports a political organisation other than an official Labour group or other unit of the Party, or supports any candidate who stands against an official Labour candidate, or publicly declares their intent to stand against a Labour candidate, shall automatically be ineligible to be or remain a Party member.”
Case history shows that under clause 2.4.1.B exclusion is automatic once a person has been found to join or support an organisation that Labour does not approve. In May 2015 for instance, a Labour member in Glasgow was expelled for stating on social media that he would be not supporting Labour but would be supporting the SNP.
Last September Pete Radcliff, chairman of the Broxtowe constituency Labour Party, was expelled over his links to the supposedly far-left group the Association of Workers’ Liberty. Brighton Labour chairman Mark Sandell was expelled for the same reason just days later.
The National put it to Scottish Labour that, in accordance with Party rules, they should be disciplining any party member who joins or supports LFI. We also asked if Scottish Labour was going to warn its members about the danger of joining LFI.
A Labour source, speaking with the authority of the party leadership in Scotland, said: “This is a minor fringe group and unless it becomes an official unit of the SNP or another pro-independence party, the small number of members involved will not be disciplined.”
The reasoning appears to be that as no action was taken against members who joined LFI before the 2014 referendum when Jim Murphy was leader, then there is no basis for expulsion under Kezia Dugdale’s leadership.
According to a party source: “The best comparison here is Labour Leave, where we saw some MPs take a high profile in the EU referendum.”
The same source said: “Labour are opposed to a second independence referendum. On the back of every single membership card it states that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.”
Scott Abel of LFI said: “I am very pleased to hear this news. It would make a mockery of ourselves as a party if Labour was to start expelling members who want independence. In fact the party should be delighted because we are stopping people maybe leaving Labour and joining other parties such as the SNP or Scottish Socialists.
“We are Labour Party members and supporters and we don’t want to leave the party. We see independence as a constitutional and not a party political issue.”
“The Party never gave anyone the chance to debate independence prior to the referendum and that’s why we got together. It was just ‘this is our stance’ and it wasn’t up for discussion.
“Quite a lot of us felt at that the time we need to speak about this and we still do.”
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