SCOTTISH Labor has been asked to explain its position after Wales’ first minister, Labour’s Mark Drakeford, said the SNP had a mandate to hold a second independence referendum.
The Labor First Minister was speaking on the subject of unionism when asked if a new prime minister should “give Nicola Sturgeon the independence referendum she wants for Scotland”. Drakeford assumed he should.
READ MORE: SNP to apply to intervene in High Court indyref2 case, NEC rules
He said: “I have always been clear that if you have a government that has been elected by its people with such a proposition in its manifesto, it should have the right to implement that manifesto.
“The Scottish National Party, as much as I disagree with them on this, won an election on the basis that they would ask for another referendum.
“How can this be denied to the Scottish people?”
Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar has been firm in his opposition to a second referendum, insisting it is a “distraction”.
At the 2021 Holyrood election – in which Scottish Labor returned just 22 MSPs, its worst ever result – Sarwar pledged to oppose indyref2 throughout the parliamentary term.
UK Labor Party leader Keir Starmer (above) also publicly opposed a vote, saying he would follow Boris Johnson in refusing to issue a Section 30 order if he became prime minister.
Drakeford’s comments piled pressure on Sarwar to explain his opposition.
SNP MP Drew Hendry tweeted: “Finally a voice of reason from an elected Labor MP. First Minister @MarkDrakeford of Wales. A simple democratic position.
“Why can’t @AnasSarwar have the same principle?”
Paul McLennan, SNP MSP for East Lothian, said Sarwar was at odds with his Welsh counterpart in denying the mandate for a second independence referendum.
He said: “Respecting the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland should not be groundbreaking, but Mark Drakeford has distinguished himself from democracy deniers Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer by acknowledging the cast-iron mandate given for a referendum.
“Anas Sarwar’s anti-democracy stance has been exposed once again by the First Minister of Wales.
“If Labor in Wales recognizes the democratic will of the people of Scotland, why shouldn’t Scottish Labour?”
Scottish Labor did not respond to The National’s request for comment. However, Labor MP Sarah Boyack (above) told the PA news agency: “Contrary to SNP spin, most Scots do not want a referendum next year.
“People want the Scottish Government to focus on tackling the cost of living crisis and saving our struggling NHS.
“While the SNP trades in division and empty promises, Scottish Labor is fighting to build a better future for Scotland using the powers we have now.”
Speaking to the BBC on Friday, Drakeford also addressed the “imperialist unionism” of the Tory government under Johnson.
Asked about the scrapped plans for an eight-storey Union Flag in Cardiff city centre, Drakeford said: “It’s not a good idea because you’re not strengthening the Union through the aggressive approach to it that the Johnson administration took.
“It was the size of one of the big buildings in Cardiff. It would look like something from Eastern Europe.
Asked if he was a Unionist, Drakeford said: “I believe in the Union.”
However, he said the flags flying over government buildings in Wales were “proportionate” and did not “seek to dominate the landscape with that aggressive message of the kind of imperialist unionism that the UK government is seeking to impose in other parts of the United Kingdom”.
He said such unionism “only widens the cracks”.
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