wendy is ridiculed overreferendum climbdown
Alexander: I was only calling the SNP’s bluff
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Labour leader Wendy Alexander yesterday endured a fresh torrent of ridicule from rival parties as she tried to justify her call for an early referendum on Scottish independence.
Ms Alexander, who staged a climbdown on Saturday a week after floating the idea, was described by an aide to First Minister Alex Salmond as the “comical Alexander of Scottish politics”.
Tory leader Annabel Goldie said: “The now incomprehensible antics and policy acrobatics of Labour show a party in a shambolic state of division and turmoil.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen said a TV interview with Ms Alexander was “not a credible explanation” of events, adding: “Labour’s position has shifted from farce to fantasy.”
And Scotland Office Minister David Cairns admitted: “This hasn’t been a good week for us. My thoughts this morning are with the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Labour voters who are looking at their newspapers and wondering what on earth is going on.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday pledged to do “whatever is necessary” to preserve the UK.
He wants the pro-Union parties, business and trade unions to join forces to fight the breakup of the UK.
Ms Alexander denied trying to bounce the premier into backing her call for an early referendum.
She admitted it had been a “controversial” move but said she had no plans to quit, and denied misrepresenting Mr Brown’s views.
She claimed last Tuesday to have Mr Brown’s support for an early referendum, but he told a Sunday newspaper he was “not persuaded” of the case for one.
Her brother Douglas, a member of Mr Brown’s cabinet, also said yesterday he was “not convinced” of the case for a referendum.
Ms Alexander announced in a TV interview last Sunday that she favoured an early referendum, challenging Mr Salmond to “bring it on”.
But on Saturday Ms Alexander staged her climb-down, saying Labour lacked the numbers at Holyrood to force the SNP’s hand.
Yesterday she said her move had been a success, having called the SNP’s bluff and shown them to be scared of an early referendum.
But the SNP said she had conceded the principle of a referendum and would have no excuse for not backing their referendum in 2010.
Annabel Goldie said: “She has given game, set and match to the Nationalists. It will be their plan, their timing, and their question.”
But Ms Alexander declared: “We called the SNP’s bluff and they blinked.”
Interviewed yesterday, she insisted: “I don’t think it’s gambling with the constitutional future of Scotland to say we trust the people.”
Asked why she claimed Mr Brown endorsed her call for a referendum, Ms Alexander said: “The prime minister has endorsed my right as leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament to do whatever we think it takes to expose the hollowness of the SNP.
“We took the initiative, we put the SNP behind the eight-ball, and the SNP’s bluff was called. They are as yellow as the colour that supports their party.”
Ms Alexander, whose title is not leader of the Scottish Labour party but leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament, insisted: “The decision as to whether a referendum has support in the Scottish Parliament is a matter for the Labour group in the Scottish Parliament.
“Part of devolution is to say we will harry the SNP to bring forward a bill to let Scotland choose – and the SNP are not letting us do so.”
Asked if she would back an eventual SNP referendum bill in 2010, she said there was no “blank cheque”.
“We will not vote down the opportunity for Scotland to speak, but we will want to harry them on things like what the question is and what the process is.”
Pressed on the issue, she said: “You can’t expect me to pronounce on a bill that hasn’t been published.”
Ms Alexander agreed her move was controversial, but said Labour MSPs had given “overwhelming” support and she has no plans to resign.
She denied her rift with Mr Brown was irreparable, or that she had weakened the prime minister.
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