The notion that the Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer is left-wing has become a gossamer-thin fantasy. Starmer’s Labour Party is to left-wing politics what night is to day.

Starmer has placed Labour in the mythical centre ground in an attempt to appeal to both England’s Blue Wall old-fashioned Tories, sickened by the Johnson years and the current Conservative appetite for cruelty and culture war, and English Red Wall voters who caved to the right under the weight of Brexit.

However, in Scotland, Starmer’s strategy goes precisely nowhere. Yes, the ramshackle SNP has taken a major hit in terms of public perception, but this isn’t really translating into much of a boost for Labour in the polls.

Recent Holyrood constituency polling sees Labour on about 30%, with the SNP in the high 30s. Earlier this year, crucially before the wheels came off the nationalist machine, Labour was hitting nearly the same. Polls for the regional list tell broadly the same story: Labour in the mid-to-high 20s; SNP mostly in the low-30s.

Meanwhile across Britain, in polling for the next General Election, Labour is in the mid-to-high 40s, with Conservatives often coming 20 percentage points behind in the mid-to-high-20s.

So, put bluntly, the Starmer strategy isn’t working in Scotland. Why? Well, firstly, it’s a strategy designed with England in mind. Also, in England, there’s no alternative to Starmer’s Labour if you want the Tories gone. In Scotland, lefties can still find some fig leaf of progressive cover which provides enough reason - just about - to cast a reluctant vote for the SNP.

Read more: Who will win the battle for the soul of the Scottish left?

Starmer has effectively killed the notion of voting Labour for many in Scotland with his cynical u-turns on progressive policies. He’s rolled back on nationalisation of public services, improving welfare, tuition fees, green investment, higher taxation for top earners, House of Lords abolition, support for striking trade unionists, softening Brexit, and removing the hated child benefit cap.

His reign is clearly uncomfortable for many in Scottish Labour. MSP Monica Lennon was rightly incensed by Starmer’s position on the child benefit cap. Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba penned an op-ed for the National in which she talked of being in “direct opposition to the current leader” on the issue. But under Anas Sarwar there will be no split from London Labour.

Make no mistake, the Scottish left is thoroughly sick and tired of the SNP. Its progressive promises were lies. Nationalists did far too little with powers available to mitigate the worst of Conservative maladministration. The Tories caused a storm to rain down, but the SNP is at best a leaky umbrella. It doesn’t provide viable shelter, let alone possible safe haven.

Read more: As the SNP implodes, what does the party stand for?

Any dip in SNP support that we’ve seen, since Nicola Sturgeon’s departure unleashed nat-hell, is down to some left-wing progressives walking away.

Yet the SNP retains one powerful weapon: many left-wingers are soft Yessers. They comprise the vast bulk of folk who over the last 20 years switched from Labour to SNP. They see Westminster as irredeemable and so, given they favour an equitable society, felt independence worth the shot. They aren’t nationalist; they don’t care about flags. But Starmer’s hardline on the Union means they’ll never return to Labour.

An important point: there’s nothing really that special about Scotland. We’re pretty much the same as folk across the rest of Britain. But on one matter we do differ: for decades now we’ve drifted much more to the left than the other UK nations.

Put all these facts together and you’ve got this: a fairly large group of Scottish lefties in desperate need of a political home. They aren’t completely disenfranchised: some - those soft Yessers - can hold their nose and vote SNP; others - of a unionist bent - can hold their nose and vote Labour. But none is really able to cast a ballot for what they truly want: an authentically left-of-centre, socially democratic, progressive party.

Read more: SNP is pushing progressive voters into the arms of Labour

Therefore, there’s space for a new left-wing party in Scotland. Crucially, though, that new left-wing party would need to lance the boil that’s the constitution.

How could any new left-wing party appeal to both soft Yessers and moderate unionists, hose who comprise Scotland’s silent left-wing majority?

Any new left-wing party would need immediate broad appeal, and have to cut across the constitutional spectrum, to have any hope or purpose. A left-winger inclined to independence, who’s done with the SNP, could still chance their vote with the indy-supporting leftie Greens, after all. It’s unlikely many pro-Union lefties would do the reverse and lend votes to the LibDems. What would be the point when Starmer already occupies centre ground? And surely only the demented would vote Alba.

So unless any new left-wing party deals with the constitution head-on, it dies in the cradle.

The matter could be addressed like this: any new left-wing party in Scotland could and should be completely neutral on the constitution. It should say that support for independence or the Union is a matter of personal conscience.

It could address the thorn festering in Scottish society by declaring that independence will only become a live political issue once support rises to at least 60% in opinion polls for a prolonged period of, say, six months. If that happens then the government of Scotland would have a democratic duty to ask Westminster to enable a referendum. In the event of a referendum, this new left-wing party would remain neutral and not campaign, whilst giving its members freedom to take either side in the debate.

Is this the perfect solution? Clearly not. There’s no such thing. But what the creation of a new left-wing party that’s neutral on the constitution could do is break the deadlock in Scottish political life. It could begin the process of removing the very dead, very cold hands of the SNP from the levers of power by revivifying left-wing politics currently chloroformed by Starmer.

It would also remove the giant boulder of the constitution from Scottish life, allowing at least one party - this new leftwing entity - to concentrate solely on policy which makes devolution work for Scotland, while still opening a pathway to independence should the people want it.

For one matter is sure, Scotland cannot continue on this present tortured road to nowhere.