JACKIE Baillie has called on Scottish Labour to offer “complete clarity on the constitution”.
The party is increasingly split over indyref2. Last summer, the then-shadow chancellor John McDonnell told an audience at the Fringe in Edinburgh that a Labour government would not block a request from the SNP for a second independence referendum, overruling the Scottish party’s policy.
Following their hammering in December’s disastrous General Election, party members, including MSPs Monica Lennon and Neil Findlay and senior councillor Alison Evison, publicly called for a rethink of Labour’s opposition to another say on Scotland’s independence.
In one of her first interviews since becoming deputy leader, Baillie told the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland: “I have long been against a second independence referendum. I’m proud of the Labour Party’s history as a party of devolution, we created the Scottish Parliament.
“We were instrumental in ensuring it had more powers, both through the Calman Commission and the Smith Commission, and I’m keen that we will write that chapter in our history.”
Last month, writing in the Scotsman, Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, said that “Scottish Labour must oppose independence; and oppose a second independence referendum”.
She said: “Scottish politics is dominated by the constitution, and voters have a right to know where parties stand on our nation’s future.
“Labour supports remaining in the UK because we are a party of solidarity, and because independence would inflict deeper austerity on the most vulnerable in society.”
Baillie beat rival Matt Kerr for the position of Scottish Labour’s deputy leader by 10,311 votes to 7528.
Her campaign was funded thanks to donations of around £25,500.
They included £2500 from Kevin Hague, the blogger behind the anti-independence These Islands group. Lawyer Gordon Dalyell handed over £3000, as did Labour peer Willie Haughey.
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