This week brought the (excellent?) news that a second Scottish Labour MP (there are only two) had been promoted to Labour’s shadow front bench. This is the continued advancement of Michael Shanks who has come from obscurity to ministerial status in the space of just two months, and this from a man with a chequered history of party loyalty and a poor record of success in elections, having been unsuccessful in Local Authority, Scottish Parliament and UK Parliament elections.
Shanks left Labour party in May 2019 citing opposition to Brexit and antisemitism. He rejoined the party in April 2020 when Keir Starmer became leader. Strangely enough, his opposition to Brexit didn’t seem to hinder his continued membership of the party, even as the Starmer led party became more and more pro Brexit.
Here’s a comment he made at the time of his resignation, describing Labour as “a party that has a bankrupt approach to our membership of the EU and is complacent about the impact it will have on the poorest people across the UK”.
Out of the blue, he was selected to stand as a candidate in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election when 3 much more experienced members who had put their names forward were barred by Labour HQ. A complaint about the selection process was made by the local CLP, but was ignored. They didn’t even get a reply. Obviously, there was some reason why the party were keen to see him selected for an election that, given the circumstances, Labour were virtually certain to win. I wonder what it was.
Shanks won Rutherglen and Hamilton West on 5th October, thanks mainly to the huge boycott by former SNP voters, disgusted at the behaviour of the party leaders and by their treatment of the previous MP, Margaret Ferrier. During his election campaign, he promised to be “his own man” and to oppose both the two-child cap and the bedroom tax, both policies Starmer has said will be retained by a future Labour Government. Were these promises made to get elected, to be dropped once in Westminster?
Many bloggers, including myself, warned that Shanks had no interest in Scotland and, once elected, would simply be another Labour stooge. Here’s a blog I published at the time of his selection as Labour candidate.
Shanks was sworn in as MP on 16th October, making his maiden speech in the Violence Reduction, Policing and Criminal Justice Bill debate on 15th November.
Does Shanks’ first month and a half show how closely he’s going to stick to the promises he made to the Rutherglen and Hamilton West electorate to get elected? Is he going to support Scotland or is he going to support Labour?
The first test of his intention was Devolution (Employment) (Scotland) debate on 17th October, the day after he was sworn in. The motion was proposed by SNP Member David Linden and was a proposal to devolve employment legislation to the Scottish Parliament. The motion was lost by 33 votes to 22, with Shanks and his colleague and now boss, Ian Murray, the Shadow Scottish Secretary, along with the rest of Labour Members, choosing to abstain. Was this was an example of the Bain Principle (Labour will never support a measure raised by the SNP) or was it was a continuation of Labour’s reluctance to give any powers to the Scottish Parliament that could make things better in Scotland. (Bear in mind that in the post 2014 referendum Smith Commission to decide what powers would be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, Labour voted against virtually all tax devolution.)
So, within 24 hours of arriving in the Commons, Shanks failed his first test, choosing to support Labour, not Scotland.
His next test was in the debate on a ceasefire in Gaza on 16th November, again a motion proposed by the SNP. Here, strong feelings were expressed by members of all parties (except the Tories, of course). In fact, in advance of the debate, Labour in Scotland had backed the ceasefire as did the vast majority of the Scottish public. However, Starmer had issued a three-line whip for all members to abstain, so voting for the ceasefire would have career implications for Labour members. When it came to the vote, 56 Labour MPs voted for the ceasefire, including several ministers, but neither Shanks or Murray were among the 56.
Shanks’ decision to follow the Westminster party line and go against the Scottish party and public proved to be a career enhancing move as he was promoted to the shadow front bench on 27th November, just 42 days after his arrival in the Commons and 11 days after the ceasefire vote. Probably not a record, but still seeming like surprising haste.
So, Shanks failed his second test, choosing to vote for Labour and not for Scotland.
Of course, Labour have always been against Scottish improvement. Here’s a quote from Jimmy Hood, a Labour MP at the time of the Independence referendum. “Even if the Scottish people are going to be better off economically and so on, I would still be against breaking away from the Union”. That could be rephrased as “Even if my constituents would be better off, I would still vote against it”. Even though a Scottish MP, he was more interested in the UK than in Scotland.
If and when it comes to a vote on the two-child cap or the bedroom tax, we can be almost certain that Shanks will choose to retain his recently acquired ministerial status and vote with the party line, not with the promises he made to the Rutherglen and Hamilton West electors to get elected. Instead of being his own man and campaigning to remove these hated Tory policies, he has shown himself to be just another Labour party stooge, caring about Scotland only at election time.
We told you so, didn’t we.
Thanks to Workers Liberty (https://www.workersliberty.org/) for some Labour background.
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