Earlier this week Dave Anderson, Labour’s new shadow Scottish Secretary, missed the funeral of Edward Daly, the bishop who famously waved a blood-stained white handkerchief as a symbol of ceasefire on Bloody Sunday.
Mr Anderson is also his party’s shadow Northern Ireland Secretary and has a long relationship with the area and its people.
But he had made a commitment to visit Scotland and he would not break it.
Today many in his party north of the Border wish that he had.
The MP for Blaydon on Tyneside said Labour “may well” have to consider some sort of deal with Nicola Sturgeon’s party in order to form a government.
There was fury inside Scottish Labour. One source described the reaction to his remarks as “unprintable”.
Read more: Corbyn fails to understand political dynamic in Scotland, says Ian Murray
Within hours a spokesman had made clear Scottish Labour “does not support any UK Government deal with the SNP”.
Mr Anderson defended his comments a day later, saying his party should not dismiss what could be the “price that we have to pay to prevent another rabid right-wing Tory government”.
But he infuriated his Scottish colleagues even further by saying that he was speaking on behalf of Labour “nationally” and that in any discussion on the issue Scottish Labour would be only “the loudest voice in the room”.
Why the fury? Labour politicians north of the Border are as keen to prevent another Conservative government as their counterparts in England and Wales.
Senior Scottish Labour figures took to social media on Thursday night to say they could never do a deal with a party prepared to break up the UK.
But there are other concerns as well. Many within the party believe talk of possible coalitions only it more likely they will lose the next election.
Read more: Jeremy Corbyn ally accuses Kezia Dugdale of blanking his trip north of Border
Politicians usually avoid admitting they might not win, for fear of looking weak to voters.
But in the the run-up to last year’s general election Ed Miliband came under immense pressure from Scottish Labour MPs to rule out any kind of deal with the SNP.
They argued voters in Scotland risked getting the message they could vote SNP and still get a Labour government.
The counter-argument, however, that if voters picked the SNP over Labour they risked letting the Tories in by the back door, backfired spectacularly.
Labour did so badly on the night that even if it had kept every single Scottish seat the Tories would still have formed a majority government.
During the election the Conservatives seized on the idea of a Labour-SNP alliance, printing posters depicting Mr Miliband in Alex Salmond’s pocket.
Former No 10 insiders say the tactic worked so well in middle England they party should repeat it in 2020.
Throughout the campaign she argued that that if there were more anti-Tory MPs than Tory MPs they could prevent the Conservatives taking power again.
The neat phrase, however, failed to take in a number of other positions at Westminster, including pro-Tory parties, such as Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
Earlier this month Labour leadership contender Owen Smith ruled out a coalition with the SNP. This week Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Scottish Secretary has ruled one in, so far at least.
The issue now looks set to be one of the most contentious when the two men go head-to-head in a debate in Glasgow at the end of this month .
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