THE former head of the Better Together campaign has branded any Labour deal with the SNP as 'genuinely idiotic'.
Blair McDougall, a Blairite, said Jeremy Corbyn's party had accepted what he called the Scottish nationalist premise that politics was about place rather than ideas.
Asked about Nicola Sturgeon propping up a Labour government after this month's general election, Mr McDougall said: "It's like sitting on a branch and doing a deal with the guy who is sawing the branch. It's crazy. It makes no sense."
READ MORE: Mark Smith: Let's do this - the trend that could bring down Dominic Raab and Ian Blackford
Speaking to The Times, Mr McDougall piled scorn on London leftwingers who equated Scottish independence with anti-colonial struggles. He said: "The left leadership of the party view this through their anti-imperialist worldview where any national struggle, from Papua New Guinea to Costa Rica, must be part of some historical meta-narrative about resistance and struggle."
Such a worldview, he added, was undermining arguments for socialist solidarity from Scottish Labour Richard Leonard. "That belief in solidarity is completely undone by a national leadership who are unable to make that argument because I am not sure they believe in it," he said.
Mr McDougall ran for Labour in the last general election, coming third in East Renfrewshire, behind the SNP and the winning Tory.
Those two parties, he said, are now in a symbiotic relationship based on identity politics, "Every discussion about politics and policy is about where that decision is made and not about what that decision is," he argued. "And that has been terribly to the detriment of the country."
READ MORE: Nato Secretary General responds to Sturgeon's desire to scrap nuclear weapons
Unlike other Blairites, he said he intends to stay in the party, despite anti-semitism rows which have hurt its campaign in East Renfrewshire.
He said: "All of our Jewish activists have left. All of them. It is quite tough to square that."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel