READERS of the Morning Star may well remember that back in October 2023 there was an edict issued throughout the Labour Party on discussing Gaza. Reinforced by the Scottish Labour Party bureaucracy, it read: “Any motions no matter how well intentioned are out of order and should not be debated at party meetings.”

Nine members of Glasgow Kelvin Constituency Labour Party (CLP) executive committee and six members of the Edinburgh Northern and Leith CLP executive committee resigned their offices, an action that received significant coverage and support.

So much so that eventually the muzzle was removed and at last year’s Scottish Labour Party Conference delegates passed a motion that called, among other things, for a complete economic, cultural, sporting, and academic boycott of Israel until it ceases its aggression in Palestine and is willing to engage seriously in discussions on a two-state solution in the region. It was, ironically, moved by one of the members from Glasgow Kelvin CLP who had felt obliged to resign as a constituency officer two years previously.

There are two things to bear in mind here: the first is that things can change in the Labour Party and change quickly, and that the left can win; the second is that given this is the Scottish Labour Party’s democratically decided policy on Gaza, why aren’t the Scottish Labour MPs on their feet at every available opportunity in Westminster making that point? Here I pay tribute to those few Scottish Labour MPs who have done just that.  

God knows, the situation in Gaza could hardly be any worse. You would have thought, for example, that some of Labour’s Scottish front bench, like Michael Shanks — parliamentary under-secretary of state for energy who resigned his membership of the Labour Party during the Corbyn period because “it became difficult to look my Jewish friends in the eye” — would be so consumed with moral outrage at the treatment of helpless Gazan children and Labour’s glacial moves in challenging Israel’s barbarity that he would be out of Starmer’s party faster than a Labour MP could accept free tickets for a Taylor Swift concert should the Labour leadership refuse to implement the position adopted by his own, Scottish, party.

All the more so because all of Scottish Labour’s MSPs have signed a statement under the auspices of Labour for Palestine and the Middle East, urging the Prime Minister to recognise Palestine.

Pro-Palestine campaigner Pauline McNeill MSP did much of the hard work that made this possible. The leader of Scottish Labour Anas Sarwar has separately posted his support for that position.

The problem for Scottish Labour is that Starmer and his inner circle have failed to either understand or act on the anger about Gaza and austerity — witness the recent pantomime over welfare cuts — completely undermining the efforts of the Scottish labour leadership on Gaza.

This has not only reduced their electoral support across Britain, it has boosted the support of a left opposition that does not yet formally exist: the Corbyn-Sultana formation is already polling at 10–15 per cent.

As I have argued before in Moring Star, we need to treat this support with some caution. Ben Walker, co-founder of Britain Elects, points out in the New Statesman that because the new left party is not real, whatever More in Common’s survey might tell you about the popularity of its two putative leaders, it does not tell you if there is a real appetite for an electoral, socialist alternative.

Walker reminds us of the last time an alternative party was subjected to hypothetical polling. It was in 2019 when the so-called “Independent Group” that became Change UK was formed to stop a “no deal” Brexit.

Its hypothetical results looked promising. It too polled 10-15 per cent. In the European Parliament elections of the same year, however, it managed only 3 per cent. You may recall that eight labour MPs were members. It was nearly nine but Ian Murray MP, now Secretary of State for Scotland, withdrew his support at the last minute.

In Scotland the new left party, with reportedly 40,000 sign-ups, will have other Scottish specific issues to deal with.

Co-spokesman of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) Colin Fox, writing in response to the call for such an organisation in last month’s Scottish Left Review, challenged the very idea: “This particular initiative is also built, it seems to me, on two basic misconceptions. First, that an ‘alliance’ can be stitched together by little fragments of the left coming together without the power and immediacy of the class struggle behind it. And second, that the case has already been made among the wider working class for such a formation.”

Then there is the issue of independence. The Scottish Greens and the SSP support it. Many other socialists, mainly but not exclusively found in the Labour Party and trade unions, do not.

In what appears to be an attempt at finding a more inclusive position for the new left formation Ben Wray suggested in Conter that: “Taking a clear and principled stance on the question of the right to decide would allow the new party to carve out its own political space over the constitution, since neither the SNP (which likes to pretend that independence is just a vote for the SNP away, despite years of evidence otherwise) nor Labour (explicitly opposed to Scottish self-determination) will stand on that ground.”

If I read Ben correctly, he is looking for common ground on support for the right to self-determination rather than insisting on a commitment to independence.

He is wrong about the Scottish Labour Party’s position. It actually does explicitly support self-determination but has steadfastly refused to translate that into the right of the Scottish Parliament to call a referendum, rather than Westminster. Ultimately though, Ben’s position is likely to meet the opposition of many on the radical independence left who believe that winning independence is the route to radical change, not a consequence of it.

Having said all that, if there is a challenge from the left next May in the Scottish Parliament elections, however incoherent, even a 3 per cent loss from Scottish Labour’s current polling would make a bad performance even worse.

Scottish Labour are currently sitting at around 22 per cent in the opinion polls which would give them 23 seats against a floundering SNP’s projected 59.

Into this bleak scenario for Scottish Labour add the suspension of Brian Leishman MP.

The SNP must have thought that they had won the political lottery. They posted on X “Labour just sacked a Scottish MP for standing up for Scotland, including disabled people and workers at Grangemouth.”

The Scottish Labour leadership’s response was right out of their October 2023 playbook. MSPs were told to shut up and keep their noses clean. They didn’t and even Labour MSPs Monica Lennon and Mercedes Villalba, in the throes of the selection processes for the Scottish Parliament seats, bravely offered Brian their support.

And so should Anas Sarwar if he seriously wants to sustain his leadership of Scottish Labour. He should pick a fight with Starmer. Tell him that Scotland needs an answer to austerity and wants an end to the slaughter in Gaza. MPs like Brian Leishman are offering to fight for both. That is Scottish Labour’s future.