Scottish independence became such a difficult issue for Labour that it is easy to forget the party was once the UK’s staunchest defender. As voters prepared to go to the polls a decade ago, it was Gordon Brown who delivered the barnstorming call to arms that the Unionist cause so desperately needed. In doing so, he made what must rank as one of the most powerful speeches by a British politician in this century.
Addressing supporters of Better Together, the cross-party pro-UK campaign group on the eve of the referendum, Brown made not just an economic but also a moral and emotional case against nationalism. He emphasised the shared struggles of Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish citizens, particularly during the Second World War, and noted how – in the face of real adversity – common values matter far more than accents and flags. The electoral impact of the speech, coming so soon before the vote, was probably minimal. But Brown’s intervention certainly reinvigorated an increasingly jittery No campaign at a crucial moment and, perhaps more importantly still, restored the moral authority of the anti-separatist case.
Brown’s intervention certainly reinvigorated an increasingly jittery No campaign at a crucial moment.
When he addressed the crowd in Glasgow, bestriding the stage without notes, he was following a long list of Labour party figures who had dedicated themselves to defeating Scottish nationalism. Brown’s former Chancellor Alistair Darling was, of course, the leader of the Better Together campaign; Jim Murphy, the MP and former cabinet minister, toured town centres across Scotland, making the case against independence from atop an empty IrnBru crate. Many other MSPs and MPs – including the current Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar – were central to the campaign, too.
Much of this campaigning was self-interested, if not outright cynical. Should Scotland have voted Yes, many Labour MPs would have lost their jobs. More fundamentally still, the loss of Scotland would have cleaved off – what was then, as now – a bedrock of Labour Party support. Without those MPs, it would be nearly impossible for Labour to defeat the Conservatives nationwide and form a government.
Yet the vigorous campaigning by Labour party figures against the separatists was nevertheless crucial. Conservative politicians – including the then Prime Minister, David Cameron – cared deeply about the Union and were determined to help. But they could only get a hearing from a small portion of the Scottish electorate, the vast majority of whom were, in any case, already determined Unionists themselves.
Thus, it fell to the Labour party to speak to the majority of voters in the middle ground and to persuade them their future economic security – but also future economic prosperity – was best served by voting to stay in the UK. By keeping enough of these working and middle-class voters on the ‘No’ side, the Labour Party made a, if not the, decisive contribution to defeating Scottish nationalism.
This seismic role is, however, now often overlooked as a result of what immediately followed. Jeremy Corbyn, with his links to Irish nationalism and his generally anti-establishment outlook, was never as comfortable or as able to make the case for solidarity as Brown. Meanwhile, a succession of Scottish Labour leaders, chastened by the 2015 general election wipeout in Scotland, prevaricated about whether coming to an accommodation with nationalism would offer them a route back to power. As recent events have well shown, such thinking was not only reckless but wrong.
These days, Scottish Labour remains content not to push the Unionist case too hard, but only because it no longer has to. As evidenced at the recent general election, it can do far greater damage to Scottish nationalism by focusing on the failings of the SNP and letting one-time Yes voters feel comfortable voting Labour again.
That is all to the good. But ten years on from the independence referendum, it is worth remembering that, when the nationalists were on the charge in 2014, it was Labour politicians – that thin red line of heroes – who really went into battle for the Unionist cause.
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