SCOTTISH LABOUR is met with nothing but "worrying indifference" by voters and must fix its stance on indyref2 if it is to avoid further decline, a newly elected MSP has warned party leader Anas Sarwar.
Carol Mochan, who was elected to represent Labour on the South Scotland list, said that only the proportional representation system used at Holyrood had saved her party from “Liberal Democrat levels of annihilation”.
Mochan called for an "honest assessment" of why Labour suffered their worst ever Scottish parliament election results and warned the situation is likely to worsen still further if the party does not alter its “muddled” position on independence.
She said: “Labour simply is not seen as a serious challenger to the SNP by most. The sad fact is, though we are no longer met with anger on the doorsteps or the phones, what remains is a worrying indifference.
“When the dust settled over the weekend following the election count, we were not even close [to coming second]. That is of serious existential concern to a party that once utterly dominated Scottish political life.”
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She identified the party’s failure to find a clear position on the constitution as a problem, leaving it caught in a “vice” between hardline Tory Unionism and the SNP's pro-independence stance, with little public support for federalism.
“If we reach the next Scottish Parliament election with the same muddled priorities, I think it is more than likely our vote will drop further.”
She added: “Fundamentally, the Labour Party has at its very foundation the concept of self-determination. It is impossible for my own party to claim there is not an appetite in a large part of the country for another referendum.”
Sarwar deflected questions about Labour’s long-term plans on indyref2 in the campaign by saying he wanted to focus on jobs and recovery for at least this parliamentary term.
He repeatedly branded the independence debate an “old argument”.
Mochan makes the points in an article in the forthcoming May/June edition of the Scottish Left Review (SLR).
She calls for a return to the popular socialist policies Labour offered in the 2017 general election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn, calling it “the model for how we begin again”.
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Mochan stood in her home seat of Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, where she came 6006 votes behind the SNP’s Jeane Freeman in 2016.
After Freeman stood down at the election, her SNP successor Elena Whitham held on by 4337 votes.
Mochan came third after being overtaken by the Tories as Labour’s vote share sank to 24.2 per cent; it was 42.5% when it last won the seat in 2007.
Nationally, Scottish Labour fell from 24 to 22 MSPs, as its vote share fell by 1 point in seats and 1.2% on the list.
It lost the East Lothian seat to the SNP, and failed to come close to ousting the SNP in its target seats.
Mochan, part of the Campaign for Socialism Group, said: “At times, in Scottish Labour, it seemed our messaging was designed primarily to maintain the three constituencies we held onto in 2016.
“Overall, our vote dropped across Scotland in terms of the constituencies and the regional lists, and on the latter the Tories were comfortably ahead of my party. In a ‘first-past-the-post’ system we would be heading for Liberal Democrat levels of annihilation.”
She urged the left of the party to seize the initiative, saying fellow new MSPs Katy Clark Paul Sweeney, Mercedes Villalba and herself were now part of “the biggest left wing grouping in the Scottish Labour Parliamentary Party for some time”.
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She said her message to party members was: “We can organise for a serious socialist future, but you have to get involved. In the age when social media posturing online has become the currency of activism for some, some will have to wake up from that. It’s a smokescreen and an echo chamber.
“I am one of the least likely people to ever become an MSP, I never saw myself in this position, but it happened because I saw the devastating effects of austerity on ordinary people who are under the boot of capitalism.
“It starts on the streets and doorsteps of Scotland. I will see you there.”
A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: “We’re on a journey to build a credible alternative to the SNP.
"We ran an energetic and enthusiastic campaign, which put Labour back on the pitch and is something for us to build on for the next five years. Our campaign for a national recovery defined the election campaign, and we will take that energy into the Scottish Parliament.”
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