KEIR Starmer has said it would be “irresponsible” for the Prime Minister to grant a Scottish independence referendum.
In one of his first major speeches on the constitution, the Labour leader said his party would “play a key role in defeating the forces of separatism”.
He promised to “argue passionately” against the forces of another independence referendum.
“We’ll argue that today. We’ll argue that tomorrow,” he promised.
Starmer used the speech to announce a new constitutional commission to look at decentralising power from Westminster.
He said this new initiative – which is to be launched in the new year and advised by Gordon Brown – will “rule nothing out”.
Starmer said: “The commission will make the positive case for the UK and it will champion devolution, but beyond that it will rule nothing out and I will look at the conclusions without preconceptions.”
“Of course a project of this scale, of this urgency, should be initiated by the UK Government but in the absence of that leadership from the Prime Minister, Labour will do what is necessary in opposition,” he added.
“And just as in 1997, we will make devolution a reality under the next Labour government. This will of course take time, but I expect the Scottish section, working with Scottish Labour and our leader, Richard Leonard, to be completed as soon as possible”.
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Starmer said: “Separatism will leave us all weaker. Just as defending the status quo will. That’s why it’s time to build a new partnership between our nations and regions to make Britain fit for the decades ahead.”
Starmer said he could sympathise with former Labour voters who were now backing independence.
“I understand why you feel as you do and I’m not surprised. For a decade there’s been a Conservative government in Westminster with priorities you don’t share,” Starmer said.
“And there’s been a Labour opposition that keeps losing. When those are the alternatives I can see why you’ve reached the conclusion that you have.
“But Boris Johnson isn’t Britain and Nicola Sturgeon isn’t Scotland. The United Kingdom is much more than that, more than any individual.”
On indyref2, Starmer said it would be “the entirely wrong priority to hold another Scottish independence referendum in the teeth of the deepest recession for 300 years, while still fighting this pandemic, when there is such uncertainty about how Brexit and coronavirus will affect us.”
He added: “That’s why Nicola Sturgeon’s calls for an independence referendum in the early part of the next Scottish Parliament, perhaps even next year, is so misguided.
“Given the damage and division this would cause, no responsible first minister should contemplate that. No responsible prime minister would grant it.
“There should not be another independence referendum while our economic and health outlook is so precarious. Nor until there has been a proper assessment of the costs, consequences and uncertainties of separation, including the future of Scotland’s currency, our armed forces and national security, as well as the potential impact on pensions, jobs, taxes, and social security of the Scottish people.”
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said Labour’s “ever-changing messages on the constitution” offered no “meaningful contribution” to debate.
He said: “A decade ago a radical plan to reshape the UK might have taken the initiative. But in the absence of either competence or real democracy in the UK, it has become inevitable that more and more people would be ready for Scotland to go its own way. Even now, Labour have nothing to show for the time they’ve wasted, and have no plan to present.”
Harvie added: “Labour may still believe it’s possible to transform the United Kingdom enough to persuade people in Scotland that it’s worth staying in, but they seem more focused on fighting with the Tories for their share of a declining Unionist vote.
“It’s no wonder more than a third of Labour voters in Scotland, and growing, are now ready to vote Yes to a new European Scotland charting its own progressive path.”
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