Last Thursdays humiliating and crushing defeat for the Labour Party should be a wakeup call for what will almost certainly become a recurrent trend should it continue to ignore the reasons as to why the
electorate rejected Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, and learn from the lessons of the Scottish Labour Party’s downfall.
The reasons are varied and complex but ultimately come down to the electorates lack of trust for Jeremy Corbyn, an ongoing issue over antisemitism which further reinforced that mis trust and an ambiguous Brexit policy stance that confused the electorate. A manifesto that lacked inspiration, emphasised state ownership and lacked any real pragmatism to address any of the issues that Jeremy Corbyn hoped would transcend Brexit as the focal point and bring people together.
Once the backbone of Scottish politics the Scottish Labour Party was last in government in 2007 with the SNP securing a narrow win of 47 seats compared to the Scottish Labour Party’s 46 seats. The subsequent Scottish Parliament elections would prove catastrophic for the Scottish Labour Party with the Party losing eleven MSPs in 2011, all MP’s bar Ian Murray in 2015 and fourteen MSPs in 2016 which led to the party being replaced by the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party as the official opposition.
So, what led to the demise of the Scottish Labour Party? Like what happened last Thursday the reasons are varied and complex but part of it can be down to the party’s changing relationship with the electorate spurred on by the constitutional question of Scottish independence which continues to dominate the political narrative, but its fundamentally more than that, it’s the party’s disconnect with Scottish voters over a sustained period of time and it comes back to trust and the party’s offer to the people of Scotland.
Constitutional issues have always been a problem for the Labour Party and in 2016, Anas Sarwar
MSP summed it up and said, “the truth is we are not comfortable nationalist and not comfortable unionists which is difficult in a binary election.”
Following last week’s result, it’s understandable that some Scottish Labour MSPs are now arguing for the party to take a fresh look at its position on a second referendum on Scottish independence, but any change on policy needs to be well thought out and based on rationale as opposed to a knee jerk reaction. If the new strategy is a case of “if you can’t beat them, join them” in the hope it will make the party more electable then Its foreseeable that the Scottish Labour Party will alienate pro remain voters who will end up voting for the Scottish Liberal Democrats or even the Scottish Conservative Party and still find themselves on a downward spiral.
However, if the revised policy is to support the principle of the Scottish Parliament deciding when the next referendum should be then the argument becomes more about democracy and local decision making, but similar to Brexit if that becomes the adopted stance then the Scottish Labour Party will need to learn the lessons of Brexit and have a clear position on the constitution and make the case for either the union or independence.
So, what next for the UK Labour Party? Firstly, the party will need to take stock of the result, but the focus will be on who succeeds Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. Rebecca Long Bailey is a firm favourite to become the next leader and Angela Rayner is expected to run on the same ticket to become deputy leader but a strategy focused on winning back Scotland and the party’s traditional heartlands will be something that members will want to see in both Scotland and England.