SCOTTISH Labour MP Douglas Alexander clashed with a BBC presenter during a discussion on independence.
It comes as Scotland marks 10 years since the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.
The Lothian East MP was challenged on his claim that Scotland had “moved on” from independence, despite a fresh poll this week suggesting that more than 57% of Scots wanted a second referendum.
Host Laura Maxwell asked if people had “really moved on” and pointed to polling suggesting support for Yes and No was tight.
Alexander replied: “I don’t really think that’s a statistical judgement that you can make. If you look at the average of the polls, broadly there’s not been any significant change in the last decade.
“Let’s recollect of course there’s been significant demographic change since then, people have passed on and yet the numbers with a stubborn and quiet determination have largely remained unshifted.
“So in that sense we’ve experienced Boris Johnson, we’ve experienced Brexit, if you had to grow a politician in a test tube likely to spike support for independence, I’d respectfully suggest you’d probably grow Boris Johnson (below).”
Alexander added that the “change” Scotland wanted to see was not constitutional but primarily in public services and suggested that a number of the 45% who voted for independence was that they wanted change.
Maxwell then pressed Alexander on what further devolution powers he would like to see his colleagues in Westminster commit to.
He said Holyrood was one of the most “powerful devolved legislatures in the world” but Maxwell said: “How much are you and your colleagues at Westminster thinking about further devolution because it felt like in 2014 you sort of came up with The Vow on the back of a fag packet as a result of good polling for the Yes campaign.”
Alexander hit back and said: “Well I know it suits our opponents to suggest that somehow The Vow was what won it but the truth is it was a newspaper article a couple of days before polling that evidenced a genuine commitment that was then expressed in the Smith Commission.
“So it was a serious piece of work the Smith Commission, it had all-party support and it delivered significant changes.”
Alexander then said he wished the Scottish Government had used the powers given by The Vow to tackle issues like child poverty.
Maxwell pressed Alexander again on what further powers he would commit to for Holyrood although he repeated his suggestion that Scotland had moved on from the debate on independence and pointed to practical changes which were needed in child poverty, healthcare and ferry services.
“Is that your message then to soft Yes voters, you’re going to rely on them in 2026,” Maxwell asked as she said, “are you simply going to say we’ll promise we’ll do a bit better?”
“No, far from it. We’re going to say you can have real change with Scottish Labour,” the MP said.
“What we saw from our leader Anas Sarwar during the General Election campaign…”
Maxwell interrupted to say that “just governing isn’t change” to which Alexander (above) asked her to “let me finish the sentence and then we can continue the discussion”.
“What we saw in July was significant numbers of former nationalist voters choosing to place their faith and place their vote with Scottish Labour because we promised them the kind of practical changes they wanted to see,” the MP replied.
“They wanted to see extra investment in our education system, they wanted to see extra investment in the NHS and they wanted to leave behind a politics of division and polarisation that’s ill-served Scotland over the last decade.
“I can’t really think of another political party than the SNP that has so effectively accumulated political capital over the last 10 years to so little practical benefit of the Scottish people.
“I can’t think of an area of our national life that’s got better in the 10 years since the referendum.”
He said Scottish Labour would be making an “offer for the future” although was grilled again as Maxwell said the party was just promising to “govern better”.
She asked the MP what the democratic route to a referendum is to which he said: “Well the principle barrier to any further significant referendum on the constitutional question is not the Scottish Labour Party or UK Parliament, it’s the Scottish people who with a quiet determination year after year have continued to prioritise the kind of social and economic changes I’m talking about rather than indulge the nationalist obsession with constitutional change.
“That’s why I sense the SNP is losing support, that’s why I sense the Scottish Labour Party is winning support.”
