Keir Starmer has ruled out backing a second independence referendum while the country recovers from the Covid crisis.
The Labour leader said: “Given the damage and division this would cause, no responsible First Minister should contemplate it and no responsible Prime Minister would grant it.”
Outlining “a positive alternative to the Scottish people”, Starmer stepped up the attack on SNP “separatism” as he laid out Labour’s stall for the 2021 Scottish elections.
He said: “Ultimately, there’s nothing that separatism can offer to a child living in poverty in Glasgow, just as there’s nothing that nationalism can offer a child living in poverty in Camden.”
Opposition to IndyRef2 is intended to get Labour through difficult Holyrood elections – under the leadership of Richard Leonard – after which Starmer hopes to have a devolution plan for the UK in place.
He promised the Scottish part of Labour’s constitutional commission, advised by ex-PM Gordon Brown, would deliver a “fresh and tangible offer” to the Scottish people and be completed “as soon as possible”.
