THE role Scottish Labour should play in any second independence referendum should be put to the party membership, former MP Gemma Doyle has suggested.
Ms Doyle, who lost her West Dunbartonshire seat in the SNP General Election landslide, admitted fighting another poll would be “harder second time round” and said that being a member of her beleaguered party felt “a bit like round after round of self-flagellation at the moment”.
Noting how the “SNP juggernaut rolls on”, she explained on the Progress website how Scottish Labour not only did not have the luxury of years to rebuild before next year’s Holyrood elections but also there was “the spectre of a second independence referendum”.
While many thought this inconceivable, she said the Nationalists’ election victory meant many within the SNP believed they had a fresh mandate for a second poll.
Ms Doyle noted how in the wake of the election defeat Labour had lost “an enormous amount of our infrastructure”, which meant another fight against independence could prove much tougher.
“To stop rows about what role the Scottish Labour Party should play in a second referendum, the new leader should think hard about putting this question to the membership,” she argued.
“I have no doubt the vast majority of our members want us to campaign against independence but, in a much weaker party, debating this question for the second time round, it will be important to have a settled view, which members feel has been considered carefully and taken democratically.”
The ex-MP also warned, given the “likely outcome” of another SNP majority at Holyrood next May, it was imperative for her party to avoid a “bun fight” over who should be on Scottish Labour’s regional lists.
“That team needs to have enough breadth, depth, energy and ideas to fight the next referendum. Getting our list strategy right is going to be one of the first big tests of the new leader. It is absolutely vital that they get it right, otherwise our woes are only going to get worse.”
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