FORMER finance minister Andy Kerr has warned Labour supporters the party will “die like the dinosaurs” in Scotland unless they embrace radical change.
He blamed their disastrous General Election result on their “fundamental” misunderstanding of devolution and on its failure north of the border to have greater autonomy.
“We have a new normal, and we can die like the dinosaurs, or we can embrace change and survive,” he wrote in an article posted on the Labour Hame website yesterday.
In the piece he backed the setting up a separate sister party, arguing its current “over-centralising control and command structure” had left Scottish Labour weak and in a poor position to distance itself from decisions made by the UK Labour unpopular in Scotland such as its support for Trident.
“Other European parties manage a federalised structure with sister parties just fine. It would allow Scottish Labour to base its party machine in Edinburgh and develop a closer relationship with the Scottish parliament. Labour could then rebuild through the parliament, local government and the community,” he said.
“The seeds of Labour’s wipeout in Scotland were sown long ago and were the predictable consequence of our failure to devolve the political culture of the Scottish Labour party to match our devolved powers...We failed to acknowledge our distinctive Scottish social democracy. Instead of being embarrassed about that, we should have celebrated it. Our instincts are more communitarian, cooperative, pro-public service, pro-European, anti-Trident, and, most importantly, anti-austerity. Our divergence with middle England is growing.”
He added: “Fundamentally, we did not ‘get’ devolution. It had to be done but we did not embrace it. Scotland was changing, not becoming more nationalistic but being for a strong and confident Scottish Government and an alternative to the Westminster village.
“Those powers we have further devolved and those that are part of the Smith Commission were all conceded grudgingly with no enthusiasm, and it showed. The best way to become relevant again is to become an independent party and be seen to be independent. “
Looking ahead he warned that if Labour did not take such radical action it would leave the way open for a revived Tory party to take over as the main opposition to the SNP.
Kerr, a former Labour MSP, is the latest major figure to back a more independent Scottish party which has already been put forward by Cowdenbeath MSP Alex Rowley as well as former first minister Henry McLeish.
But yet while there appears to be a growing mood among Labour supporters in Scotland for the move most of the contenders for the London leadership are reluctant to back it.
Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Mary Creagh have both dismissed the idea. Andy Burnham last month said there was “a case” for the idea but has since appeared to backtrack. Only Jeremy Corbyn, who is on the left of the party, has supported calls for a “proper debate on whether to have a federal structure for Labour” and that the party should “embrace more devolution”.
Last month, Rowley wrote an article for The National, calling for greater independence of the Scottish party, and for a revitalised “Labour Scotland” to become the party of “Home Rule”.
Speaking at a conference of Labour members in Fife on Saturday, he urged support for “a transformation of Labour and how it functions within the UK with the party in Scotland becoming an autonomous political party in its own right”.
But Kezia Dugdale, the favourite to succeed Jim Murphy as Scottish leader, has warned against separating Scottish Labour from the UK party. She argues that the independence referendum was won on the basis of pooling and sharing resources across the whole of the UK and that the same logic applies to the Labour party.
However, Rowley said at the weekend: “Labour Scotland should build a new partnership and work with its sister party in the rest of the UK where it is appropriate, and where it is in the interests of the people of Scotland to do so. Scottish Labour must speak with its own distinctive voice, its leadership must be able to react and respond to Scottish political challenges free from the constraints of a UK political party that understandably has other priorities.”
The party structure debate follows a parting shot by former leader Johann Lamont who said the Scottish party was treated like a “branch office” by London bosses as she stood down after the independence referendum.
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