Previous Scottish Labour MPs “felt threatened by devolution”, the leader of the No campaign during the 2014 independence referendum has said.
Former Better Together chief Blair McDougall said that Scottish Labour MPs before 2015 “felt that their power and their prestige was being threatened.” He also said that they thought “the leadership in Scotland was a drag on the ticket”
The new MP for East Renfrewshire said that the new group of MPs “view devolution as an opportunity rather than a threat.” And that they think Scottish Labour leader “Anas Sarwar is an enormous asset for us on the doorstep.”
McDougall was speaking at a Scottish Fabians event at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool. He appeared alongside Rutherglen MP and energy minister Michael Shanks. Labour went from two to 37 Scottish seats at the general election, with McDougall getting one of the biggest swings.
He said: “All the new MPs who have been elected are people who have come into political life in the age of devolution. That attitude is so different from how things were before. The tale of the previous large group of Scottish Labour MPs was of them feeling threatened by devolution.
“Over several expansions of devolution they felt that their power and their prestige, perhaps, was being threatened. I think this group of Scottish Labour MPs view devolution as an opportunity rather than a threat.”
He continued: “Previously, in addition to feeling threatened by the extension of powers, Scottish Labour MPs often felt that the leadership in Scotland was a drag on the ticket [with] Tony Blair being an electoral asset.
“There was that sort of conversation about, ‘Why can’t they be as good up there as we are down here in politics? No MP who was elected in July thinks anything other than that Anas Sarwar is an enormous asset for us on the doorstep, because we heard it over and over again.”
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