Jeremy Corbyn needs to take Scotland seriously

The Scottish Labour Party has had a tumultuous year. Although it helped “win” the independence referendum almost a year ago it lost a lot of support in the process, while at this year’s general election it lost even more, ending up with just one MP.

In that bleak context, the party needs all the help it can get, and while it would be an exaggeration to say it’s thrilled at the election of Jeremy Corbyn as UK leader, Scottish Labour strategists believe he presents them with a tactical (if not a strategic) opportunity.

What now matters in politics—both Scottish and UK—is “authenticity”, or rather the perceived authenticity of certain parties and their leaders. In Scotland the SNP and its leader Nicola Sturgeon “own” authenticity, so for the first time they’ll have competition in the guise of the Member for Islington North.

That might also help Scottish Labour in narrative terms. Although Scottish politics now operates on several different levels—constitutional, ideological and rhetorical—the SNP have co-opted a lot of left-wing shibboleths such as opposition to Trident, austerity and the Tories. Unlike Ed Miliband or Jim Murphy, Corbyn cannot be depicted by the SNP as a “Red Tory”.

Scotland’s First Minister was quick to respond to Corbyn’s election, congratulating him but basically setting him up to fail by warning that if Labour could not “quickly demonstrate” a “credible chance” of winning the next UK election, then the SNP and independence would remain the only “alternative to continued Tory government”.

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Of course this was disingenuous: if by some chance Labour did manage to demonstrate that, would independence suddenly fall of the radar? Not a chance. But Scottish Labour believe Corbyn’s more left-wing stance will help them expose the SNP as being, ironically, more akin to New Labour than Old.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale (who, like Corbyn, was elected by a decisive majority) understands that simply pitching to the left will not solve her party’s problems, although she has spoken about increasing taxes when the Scottish Parliament has the ability to do so, and has also hinted about changing tack on Trident.

The latter is easier than it looks, for Ian Murray, Labour’s only Scottish MP and likely to remain Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, is against renewal and therefore bringing the Scottish party into line with its new UK leader (following a debate at the Scottish conference later this year) would be relatively easy.

Given the SNP has exploited its opposition to nuclear weapons to appear more left wing than it actually is, neutralising this bone of contention has obvious benefits for Scottish Labour. On that point and others the party hopes Corbyn will change the dynamic of the Scottish debate. Of course, it might not work, but there are few alternative options.

That said, if Corbyn has a tough task then Ms Dugdale’s is even harder. She isn’t a natural Corbynista— indeed she once warned in an interview with The Guardian that his election could result in “carping from the sidelines”—and over the next few months the Scottish Labour leader will have a difficult balancing act, trying to exploit Corbyn’s “authenticity” on the one hand, while on the other not getting too close in case it all goes horribly wrong.

And of course it all going horribly wrong is not an unlikely prospect. As the SNP has correctly identified, Corbyn now finds himself leading “a deeply, and very bitterly, divided party”. At the same time, having attracted support on the basis that Labour had moved too far to the right, Nationalists will have to work hard to keep hold of at least some of their new converts.

The new UK Labour leader could visit Scotland as early as next week, although his views on party organisation, the devolution debate and the prospect of another referendum remain unclear. For Scottish Labour to benefit from his extraordinary election, Corbyn will have to begin taking the Scottish Question seriously.