A senior Scottish Labour figure has cautioned his party against embracing “hyper” Unionism.
Ex MP Paul Sweeney called for Labour and the SNP to work together on more powers for Holyrood and oppose the “common enemy” of the Tories.
He said Labour needed to be the voice for the “reconciliation” of the country.
Scottish Labour recently stepped up its opposition to indyref2 after claims the party had sent out mixed messages at the general election.
When Jeremy Corbyn was UK leader, Labour opposed another vote, but with the condition they would not block one.
The caveat angered Scottish Labour activists and the party now unconditionally opposes another referendum.
However, critics of the new stance fear it is geared towards winning support back from the Tories rather than the SNP.
Sweeney, who lost his Glasgow North East seat to the SNP in December, told the Record he remained firmly opposed to independence and indyref2.
However, he warned Labour about “coming down on one side of a culture war” and said of the new indyref2 position:
“It’s unhelpful when you are just coming down with a blunt oppositionalist position. I don’t think the emphasis or attitude is right.
“Optimism is much better.”
He said Keir Starmer’s leadership would win back Tory voters without “hyper-Unionist messaging”, adding that “binary trench warfare” on the constitution does not suit Labour.
He said: “It doesn’t make sense to me. It needs to be a much more gentle and empathetic position.
“We are still stuck in the trench warfare of 2014. It’s not helpful, it’s toxic.”
Sweeney said Labour should avoid being seen as the “we don’t want this, we don’t want that” party and urged cooperation with the SNP on boosting Holyrood’s powers:
“It makes sense to me. Why not?”
He said of Labour and the SNP: “We can have our political disagreements over certain issues and policies, but we need to find a way of working constructively together. We have a common enemy in the Tories.”
