'FOR too long, Labour have been this UK entity that dictates to Scottish Labour what they should and shouldn't say. That's not the age we're in now, and you can't get away with doing that."
This is the verdict of former Labour spokesperson, writer and commentator James Matthewson, who for the first time took the decision to vote for a different party in the Holyrood elections earlier this month.
Scottish Labour tied in second place with Reform UK in the May 7 elections, dropping from 22 MSPs to just 17. Elsewhere, Labour suffered huge losses in the local elections in England, and in the Senedd election in Wales, where pro-independence Plaid Cymru celebrated a historic victory, removing Welsh Labour from power for the very first time.
Matthewson – who lives in Edinburgh and is originally from Alnwick in the north east of England – worked as a Labour Party spokesperson in Westminster between 2016 and 2020.
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But despite being extremely loyal to the party in the past, he felt unable to vote for Scottish Labour in the Holyrood elections.
"There's nothing to vote for. I don't think there's a message," Matthewson told the Sunday National.
"Politics is all about your opinions – it's all about vision and what you want to do."
He hit out at Scottish Labour's message of "growth", saying: "Growth isn't a vision, everyone wants growth.
"And things like investment in the NHS – which political party is going to run and say that they don't want to invest in the NHS? That's not a unique message."
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Matthewson said Scottish Labour's campaigning has meant that "people like me who've been very loyal to the Labour Party over many years cannot vote for them".
He said: "It's a real shame, and I think the Labour Party overall – and I include Scottish Labour in this – have let down Scotland and the people who want to vote for them in Scotland."
Instead, Matthewson voted for the LibDems. Living in Alex Cole-Hamilton's constituency of Edinburgh North Western – where the LibDem leader won by 57.2% of the vote – he felt the party was "the least worst option".
But where have Scottish Labour gone wrong? Matthewson believes it is a mixture of "years of decline", along with the Labour movement's wider refusal to engage with the independence argument.
Matthewson is "not necessarily pro-independence", but believes that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and other party figures have "avoided the issue" to their own detriment.
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He backs the idea of a "constitutional convention" put forward by Scottish Labour MSP Paul Sweeney last week, where parties would agree on the trigger point for a second Scottish independence referendum.
"This is the first time we've heard a Scottish Labour figure say that we should be facing up to the question of independence – actually facing up to it, not just avoiding it," Matthewson said.
"If you want to say that you shouldn't have independence, then you should be able to make the argument for why not."
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Ultimately, however, Matthewson believes that Scottish Labour should break from the UK Labour Party and form an independent party to avoid being damaged any further by the toxicity associated with Keir Starmer.
"I thought for a while it could have just been a different brand, a different colour scheme, maybe a different logo – but no, they need to separate," he said.
"They say they'll lose resources from the central office, and activists and all the rest of it. But they need to grow their own activist space here in Scotland, they need to get back to basics."
Matthewson said Scottish Labour could do "what the SNP did in the 1970s" and "go back to the ground and build their base here in Scotland".
He added: "I think separating from what is now quite a toxic brand under Keir Starmer will do them the world of good."
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