Scottish Labour tries to shift focus from independence with ‘recovery plan’

Scottish Labour on Thursday doubled down on its efforts to shift Scotland’s political focus from the independence issue amid polls suggesting the once-dominant party remains stuck in third place ahead of crucial elections for the Holyrood parliament.

Unveiling Labour’s manifesto, Anas Sarwar, the Scottish party’s leader since February, said he opposed independence but wanted voters to focus on what united them and to back a “national recovery plan” that would spend heavily to create jobs and rebuild the health and care systems.

Sarwar enjoys relatively positive opinion poll ratings, but surveys by YouGov and Savanta ComRes published on Thursday showed Labour trailing the Scottish Conservatives, who have made opposing independence the central pillar of their campaign.

Both remain far behind the pro-independence governing Scottish National party, which hopes to use the May 6 election as a platform for a renewed push for a second referendum on leaving the UK.

Sarwar dismissed suggestions Labour’s campaign was being hurt by his efforts to downplay the constitutional question, insisting Scots did not want the next parliament to be mired in “old arguments and old divisions”.

Voters who wanted the country to focus on the national recovery should back Labour on May 6, Sarwar added: “That’s the message we will be doubling down on over the next two weeks of this election campaign.”

Analysts say a revival for Labour, Scotland’s dominant political force for most of the past half century, could be vital to preserving the 314-year-old union with England.

But while Labour played a central role in the pro-union campaign ahead of Scotland’s 2014 independence referendum, in which voters backed staying in the UK by 55-45 per cent, any path back to power for the party also requires winning back former supporters who now favour independence.

Sarwar has repeatedly refused to say if the election of another pro-independence majority in the Scottish parliament would amount to a mandate for a second referendum on the issue. “I’m not going to commentate on the outcome of the election,” he said on Thursday. “I’m going to try to persuade people do something different.”

The Scottish Conservatives’ campaign has sought to extend inroads into Labour’s traditional working class support by portraying the party as too weak a defender of British unity.

Meanwhile, the SNP accuses Labour of working with the Tories to oppose independence. Keith Brown, SNP depute leader, said Labour was denying people in Scotland the right to decide their constitutional future.

“The hard fact is Labour is happy to sit back and leave Scotland’s future in the hands of [Conservative UK prime minister] Boris Johnson,” Brown said.

The Scottish Labour manifesto presents plans for a post-pandemic jobs recovery, including a guarantee of six months of public sector work for all under-25s, disabled people or long-term unemployed who want it.

Other expensive commitments including expansion of NHS and care system capacity and personal tutoring to help school pupils catch up from the disruption caused by coronavirus to their education.

The manifesto said Labour would seek to avoid any increase in Scottish rates of income tax, but left open the possibility of a rethink for those earning more than £100,000 a year “if there is a need to increase income tax revenues during the next parliamentary term”.