Scottish Labour will be stuck in a 'doom loop' if it continues to ignore the 'reality' of the constitutional debate, an SNP MP has claimed. David Linden accused the party of failing to 'contend with the reason' it had failed to win a Holyrood election since 2003.
Independence Polls and IndyRef2
The Glasgow MP insisted repeated opinion polls showed independence was now 'the preferred position of the Scottish people' and voters should be offered an IndyRef2 as a result. But new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has already ruled out a second referendum taking place under his watch, in a continuation of the position taken by Keir Starmer.
Leadership Contest Underway
Scottish Labour opened nominations to find a new leader this week after Anas Sarwar abruptly announced his resignation last month. MSPs Michael Marra and Joe Fagan have already won enough declarations to make the ballot, while Monica Lennon is hoping to secure more support in the coming days for her own leadership campaign.
One of the issues likely to dominate Scottish Labour leadership hustings is the issue of the constitution, with the party having previously taking a firm stance against an IndyRef2.
SNP Criticism and Election Context
But the SNP has accused Labour of taking an 'undemocratic' position and wants the UK Government to spell out the terms for which a second referendum could be achieved. John Swinney had argued that winning an outright majority of MSPs at May's election - a feat achieved by Alex Salmond in 2011 - would be enough to force the UK Government's hand on the issue, but the SNP fell short by seven MSPs.
Linden said: 'The Labour Party in Scotland has been led to crushing defeat after crushing defeat and yet they still refuse to contend with the reason why.'
'For as long as they deny Scottish democracy to the Scottish people, why should they expect the Scottish people to put their faith in them?'
'Polling shows independence is the preferred position of the Scottish people, our parliament has an historic number of pro-independence MSPs and Holyrood voted for our right to decide - unless their next leader engages with that reality they will be forever consigned to the doom loop they find themselves in.'
'This contest has further exposed the complete mess that the Labour Party in Scotland are in and the fact their party machine may be trying to airbrush independence out of their debate shows how blind they are to the position they find themselves in.'
