KEZIA Dugdale has been warned that outright opposition to an “inevitable” second independence referendum would destroy Scottish Labour and be akin to committing political "hari-kari”.
Dugdale has already said that "there are absolutely no circumstances in which Scottish Labour will support another referendum", a message that she is expected to repeat at the party's conference in Perth next week.
However, former Scottish Labour chairman Bob Thomson said he will call on the conference to back an alternative radical stance that goes beyond "devo-max" if a second referendum is called.
Thomson warned that if Labour took a similar position in opposing independence as it did in the 2014 referendum that it faced further electoral oblivion in Scotland.
He said Labour should campaign for "an association of the British Isles" in which all four nations were largely independent, but with decisions over defence, foreign affairs and macro-economic policy decided by a joint council of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Thomson said: "The UK constitution is a shambles in my view and it’s the fault of successive Westminster leaders. It’s quite deliberate.
"Scottish Labour must come up with a radical alternative. It is too late for a federal solution and Labour should support a confederacy or an association of the British Isles with a requirement for unanimity voting on major economic issues, defence and foreign affairs.
"It seems to me that's the solution and something that could resolve the debate for a generation."
Thomson, who backed independence in 2014, said the Tory hard Brexit plan had made a second independence referendum inevitable.
He said: "Now Kezia is saying Labour will oppose another independence referendum in any circumstances. This is hari-kari politics. You do not have to be a political anorak to realise that another independence referendum is an inevitable consequence of a hard Brexit.
"Is Labour going to unite with the Tories on this issue? This could be their death knell."
Thomson, who was Scottish Labour chairman in the early 1990s, said he would seek to raise such issues at the party conference, which opens on Friday, February 24.
He said: "If there is a debate I will as a delegate take the opportunity to put that forward. I'll be arguing that position."
However, a spokesperson for Dugdale said her party was promoting an alternative to independence by advocating the use of Holyrood's new powers to stop cuts and job losses.
The Scottish Labour leader's spokesperson said: "Kezia Dugdale has set out a radical alternative to independence and a Tory hard Brexit – a federal UK delivered by a people's constitutional convention to redistribute power and wealth across the whole UK."
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