THE former chief of the Yes campaign has said that Scottish Labour “essentially threatened" members considering voting for independence.
In an interview with the Daily Record, Blair Jenkins looked back on the 2014 independence referendum 10 years on from the vote.
“I knew from the start a large part of the success of the Yes campaign was going to be how many regular Labour voters we could get to vote for us,” he told the newspaper.
“If Labour had taken a very different attitude to the referendum campaign – and I don’t mean not take sides – but if they hadn’t insisted that everybody toe the line, and essentially threatened people who were either inclined to come out for Yes, or they knew were thinking of coming out for Yes, then I think that might have produced a different outcome.”
Jenkins (below) explained he wanted Labour to adopt a similar position to the 1979 vote on devolution – which saw members publicly supporting different sides in the run-up to the referendum.
“I think it would have been possible for the party to campaign against independence as an official position, while if you supported independence then you could say so – which is what they did in the 1979 referendum.
“I’m not saying it would have necessarily changed the outcome. But had they taken the same policy in 2014 as they did in 1979, there is no doubt more Labour people would have declared for independence, and that might have persuaded more Labour voters.”
Jenkins’s interview comes a day after a new poll found 57% of Scots think the country should have a second referendum.
The former Yes campaign chief also told The National that it was “wishful thinking” to believe the 2014 result “has killed off the independence issue”.
The National has approached Scottish Labour for comment.
