McConnell: Cross border court battle over Indyref2 would be biggest dereliction of duty in modern UK history

“Post Brexit and post pandemic, I do not believe the constitutional issue is the number one concern at all of voters and people across communities in Scotland,” declares Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale.

Noting how polls place independence low down on Scots’ list of priorities, he says: “Nicola Sturgeon does not want to talk about that referendum in this election campaign because she knows that’s not where the voters are at the moment and yet, as soon as they get into government, the referendum will be their number one priority again.

“There is a space there for the Scottish Labour Party. People are worried about their jobs, their schools and the delays in their operations and diagnosis by the health service. They are worried about the environment. We have a Green Party that just blindly supports the SNP all the time instead of being a proper Green Party; so again, there is a space there.

“Anas Sarwar’s five points for national recovery shows he is absolutely in the right place politically. It’s just whether or not voters are ready to turn out in enough numbers to back that, to give him a chance to see a start of a resurgence for Scottish Labour.”

Asked if thought, as some do, the May 6 Scottish election will be a referendum on a referendum, the Labour peer responds quickly: “No, not at all. Elections are complex and they rest on many different issues. The SNP are trying to win votes by making everything free instead of saying they want a referendum as their number one priority.”

But when asked if Boris Johnson should concede a second independence referendum if the SNP secure a majority of seats, Lord McConnell laughs. “Johnson won’t. It’s an academic argument. He will just keep quoting back at the SNP that they said this was once in a generation.”

Indeed, the ex-FM stresses: “I would continue to articulate the case for putting recovery ahead of the referendum. That case is absolutely where people are.”

But, of course, Ms Sturgeon has pledged if the Prime Minister does indeed continue to set his face against facilitating a second independence poll, a future SNP administration, post May 6, will initiate one anyway and dare the Tory Government to challenge it in court.

Lord McConnell is scathing about such a prospect.

“It might suit the SNP and the Tories to have a fight in the courts over a referendum but what a terrible dereliction of duty that would be on both sides.

“People are losing their jobs. I know of young people who have attempted to commit suicide in the past 12 months. I know people who have died of cancer because they did not get a diagnosis in time. Those circumstances are not going away any time soon in Scotland.

“That sense of loss, fear and worry among young people, the huge backlog of operations and diagnoses in the health service and businesses that are close to going over the edge.

“For the SNP and the Tories to have a fight in the courts over a referendum when they should be giving their full attention to dealing with those problems would be the most scandalous dereliction of duty in modern British and Scottish history.”

Lord McConnell explains how the “Corbyn leadership and, more importantly, the capture of the party machine by the ultra-Left has significantly damaged Labour’s relationship with most parts of the country outside the metropolitan areas”.

He admits, at times, under the previous UK leadership, Labour appeared “anti-British but also not engaging”. It lacked consistency and showed “no respect for devolution and autonomy in Scotland”.

The “reset” under Keir Starmer has begun. There is now a “healthy respect” by London for the Labour parties in Scotland and Wales. “We are on the right track but have some way to go yet.”

When Tony Blair won his famous landslide victory in 1997 after 18 years of Tory government, he achieved a 10 per cent swing. The mountain Sir Keir faces to form a majority administration is even higher; he needs a 13% swing.

“Politics is relatively volatile at the moment,” stresses the Labour peer, “so it’s not easy to predict what will be the case in two or three years’ time.”

But he dismisses any notion of a pre-election pact with the Liberal Democrats, insisting what Sir Keir has to show is Labour is a “proper national party of government again…competing everywhere”.

The 60-year-old politician insists Labour has retreated into the metropolitan areas and needs to reconnect with not just the devolved nations but also those parts of the country that have felt left behind; primarily, northern England and the Midlands.

Lord McConnell accepts in recent years, due to the insecurities caused by globalisation, people have been “looking for a voice who speaks to their identity rather than to their values and that’s a fundamental shift,” which the parties of the Right have, generally, responded to more quickly than those on the Left.

He also accepts “in that environment people of a Nationalist persuasion prosper,” and argues Labour’s response should not just be to better reflect that sense of identity but also to become “more connected, more humble, more in touch with people’s real concerns…because that’s why we care”.

He implores Scottish Labour to stop being angry with voters for not voting for them in recent years and start being angry with the outcomes of the failed SNP Government.

He explains how the polarisation of politics on the constitution has meant “Scotland as a country has declined”.

He goes on: “We’ve got real problems economically, in our education service and in our health service. The Parliament is a shadow of its former self in terms of scrutiny and democratic accountability. Breaking that cycle of polarisation is absolutely fundamental and Anas’s pitch that Scotland needs a better Government but also needs a better Opposition is a great pitch.

“He might not have had enough time to break through[because] things are still so polarised…but there is a chance and Scotland would be a much healthier place if Labour was the official Opposition again.”

The former party leader also insists UK ministers must “re-engage” with Scotland.

“The reason there’s been a rise in support for independence is fewer and fewer people in Scotland have felt connected to the UK Government and the question is: what relevance is that level of government to me?

“UK ministers need to become relevant and you don’t become relevant by waving flags around. You become relevant by talking to people and listening to them and acting on their concerns. They can do that in their reserved responsibilities; they don’t need to interfere in devolution to do that.”

Asked about Mr Johnson’s decision not to campaign in Scotland, Lord McConnell says: “Be brave enough to come to Scotland, face people, talk to them about the issues that matter to them and go back and build your social security policies, your immigration system, your response to climate change, your economic strategy to build back better. Build these things based on the real experience of the people in Scotland as well as in England. It’s fundamental.”

The former FM says in the 20 years or so since devolution began, the main aspects of the settlement have “stood the test of time and have been endorsed in two referendums; 1997 and again in 2014”.

But he insists a cross-party convention is now needed to engage the public about what the Union will look like post Brexit and post pandemic. He wants Labour to put into its next General Election manifesto a fully formed proposal for an elected House of Lords, so there can be no parliamentary barrier to change.

Lord McConnell suggests while the last decade was dominated by the “clash over identity,” the next will be over the state of the economy, public services and security.

“These things are all going to be much more central to the political debate and the state of the public finances will also be a bit of a check on the freebie politics we have had as well both in the UK and Scotland, where elections have been contests about what you can give away, where tough public finances, which is what we are going to have for the next decade and more, mean choices.

“So, elections are going to become more about choices rather than who’s got the best gimmick.”