LABOUR is to launch a "regeneration" strategy in Scotland to reach out to around 40 per cent of its traditional supporters who it is thought went against the party line and backed independence in last week's referendum.
The announcement will be made today by Shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran, who will acknowledge the "deep disengagement" that led many traditional Labour supporters to vote to break up Britain. She will seek to reassure them that positive change can now come from Scotland being part of the UK.
With a General Election seven months away, Labour chiefs are worried long-standing supporters drifting towards independence will back the SNP in May and at the Holyrood poll in 2016. Yesterday the Nationalists talked up a massive surge in membership of their party, with thousands of people joining since last Thursday's vote.
The first poll carried out after the referendum showed a rise in support for the SNP at Westminster and Holyrood. 35 per cent of those questioned planned to vote Nationalist in the General Election. Support rose to 49 per cent when they were asked their intentions for the 2016 Holyrood vote.
In her keynote conference speech, Ms Curran will announce a tour of the 10 Holyrood constituencies in Scotland with the highest proportion of Yes voters, when she and other senior Labour figures will meet Labour Yes voters to hear their concerns.
Saying devolution remains the settled will of the Scottish people, she will add: "We have to be honest when we look at the results and see that many of the people who think that Britain can't work for them are Labour voters …
"We need to understand more clearly why they are angry and what we need to do about it. We need to understand why in areas like Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Dundee people feel so let down by our country that they want to opt out entirely … The campaign to change Scotland didn't end on Thursday; it only started, and it needs to include everyone."
Meantime, Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont will tell activists the party must address the "deficit of hope" in Scotland.
She will salute the "passion for change" of independence campaigners and will urge them to "share their energy with us to change Scotland and change Britain and build that society we all seek without borders".
She is expected to stress the shared objective of the Yes supporters and Labour to build a "truly just society where the talents of all can flourish and the talent of none is wasted". Ms Lamont will say Labour "allowed disappointment to become despair and to ferment into Nationalism" and it must never be allowed to happen again.
"The people of Scotland have rejected the false offer of the Nationalists. The deceitful contortion that we could have a Reaganomic tax regime and a Scandinavian welfare state. That Scotland could prosper while throwing away the benefits of the Union we have built with our neighbours over 300 years."
She will add: "But we must do more. We built the Scottish Parliament to address a democratic deficit. Now we must use it to address a deficit of hope because at the end of the day powers to parliaments mean nothing if they don't mean the empowerment of people."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article