ANDY Burnham, the Labour leadership frontrunner, has come under strong fire for suggesting there is a case for Scottish Labour to break away and become independent from the UK Labour Party with Tom Harris, the ex-Labour Glasgow MP, describing the idea as a "load of p***".
Mr Harris, who lost his Glasgow South seat at the General Election due to a 35 per cent swing to the SNP, told The Herald: "If anyone can name any occasion when the Unionists have capitulated to the Nationalists and the Nationalists then became weaker as a result and the Unionists became stronger, I would be interested to know when it was. A separate Scottish Labour Party is a Nationalist agenda.The idea of a separate Labour Party in Scotland is a load of p***."
The former Labour Minister argued that if it were the case that, having broken away from the UK party, the polls in Scotland subsequently failed to respond positively to it, then the only option open to Scottish Labour would be to fall in with the SNP and support independence.
At the weekend, Mr Burnham, asked if Scottish Labour should run its affairs separately from the party in London, replied : "There is a case for that."
Asked about the Shadow Health Secretary's view, Mr Harris replied: "Andy Burnham is wrong. If he spent a little time in Scotland and understood Scottish politics a bit better, then he would know this is not what Scotland needs."
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