A leading Scottish Labour politician has called for a second independence referendum.
Alison Evison, president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) and councillor for North Kincardinshire, made the announcement on Saturday on Twitter, claiming that democracy had become “fragile”.
Ms Evison said: “It’s straightforward to me: democracy must be at the core of all we do.
“Recently, it has become fragile and we must strengthen it again.
“We can strengthen it by enabling the voice of Scotland to be heard through its formal processes and that must mean a referendum on independence.”
Her tweet divided politicians in the north-east and beyond.
Labour president of @COSLA calling for another divisive referendum. It is clear that Labour will not protect the union. https://t.co/oev1sDJM1L
— Douglas Lumsden (@dlumsden) December 14, 2019
Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, said: “Alison Evison is the only Labour councillor in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Surely Alison has more right to comment than those that are suspended by the Labour party?”
The call was welcomed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who commented on Twitter: “Not for me to decide its direction, of course, but can’t help thinking that Scottish Labour would do well to listen to principled and sensible voices like Alison Evison.”
However, Conservatives were quick to criticise the Aberdeenshire politician.
Co-leader of Aberdeen City Council, Douglas Lumsden, said: “It is clear that Labour will not protect the union” and councillor Ann Ross said it was no “surprise” that Ms Evison supported independence.
Ms Evison is not the first Labour figure to speak out on the issue of indyref2 following the success of the SNP across Scotland in Thursday’s election.
On Friday, former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale admitted the SNP had won “three clear mandates” for another referendum.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland she said: “It’s hard to disagree with the SNP’s argument that they have now had three elections.”
And Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: “We want to have a debate within the Labour Party, we want to have a big public engagement exercise so we will be taking a wide variety of views from right across the party.
Not for me to decide its direction, of course, but can’t help thinking that Scottish Labour would do well to listen to principled and sensible voices like @AlisonEvison https://t.co/QoFZu7vdCt
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 14, 2019
“I don’t think it would be right at this time for anyone to say that they had a monopoly of wisdom on the future of the party.
“But it is pretty clear that the Labour Party opposes the creation of a separate Scottish state and, therefore, the idea of there being a second independence referendum anytime soon is not one that we would support.”
