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Scottish independence: North Labour Party members back Yes vote

Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont will call for NHS to be taken out of the hands of politicians.
Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont will call for NHS to be taken out of the hands of politicians.

Labour Party members from across the north and north-east have signed an open letter urging people to back independence.

They say a Yes vote is not a vote for nationalism – but rather to allow the nation take “the important economic and political decisions that will help put right the ills in our society”.

The letter is signed by more than 100 people including Scott Abel, a member of Labour’s Aberdeenshire West branch, Ann Agnew (Aberdeen North) and Katherine Hayes (Ross-shire).

Renee Slater, of the Aberdeen South branch, Peter Gauld, of Aberdeen Donside, and Amy Hansen, of the Ross, Skye and Lochaber branch, have also signed the letter.

Many of the signatories are members of an internal Scottish Labour Party group called Labour for Independence.

The Yes campaign have been actively targeting Labour Party members disillusioned with Westminster.

The letter reads: “As Labour Party members, supporters and prominent representatives past and present, we have campaigned extensively for equality and social justice.

“Within the party we have campaigned to ensure that the rights of workers, strong public services and the protection of those who need it are paramount to the political agenda in Britain.

“However, for the last 35 years, there has been a growing dismay that this is being further removed from the priorities of all political parties in London.

“Unfortunately, in the last 20 years this has also started to include our own representation at Westminster.

“It is from this position that we have reached the conclusion that a Yes vote will give us the greatest opportunity to create a fairer, more equal and prosperous Scotland.”

Welcoming the endorsement, Blair Jenkins, chief executive of pro-independence group Yes Scotland, claimed a Yes vote was the “one opportunity” to revive the Labour Party.

“One recent poll suggested that as many as 42% of those who voted Labour in 2010 are already intending to vote Yes,” he added.