Scottish Labour 'threatened' members not to share support for independence in 2014, says former Yes chief
dailyrecord.co.ukThe lack of Scottish Labour members who publicly supported independence in 2014 helped condemn the Yes side to defeat, senior campaign figures have said.The party took a hard line against ending the Union and took the decision to join the pro-UK Better Together movement alongside the Conservatives and Lib Dems.Blair Jenkins, the former Yes Scotland chief executive, told the Record that considerable efforts were made to convince Labour politicians to declare their backing for his side.But he claimed the party "essentially threatened" members who were considering voting for independence to remain silent.
Jenkins spoke out ahead of the 10th anniversary of the referendum which saw 55 per cent of voters reject Scotland going it alone.The former senior BBC journalist - who has never been a member of a political party - had hoped Labour in 2014 would adopt a position similar to the controversial 1979 devolution vote, which saw members publicly supporting different sides in the run-up to the referendum. "I knew from the start a large part of the success of the Yes campaign was going to be how many regular Labour voters we could get to vote for us," Jenkins said."If Labour had taken a very different attitude to the referendum campaign - and I don't mean not take sides - but if they hadn't insisted that everybody toe the line, and essentially threatened people who were either inclined to come out for Yes, or they knew were thinking of coming out for Yes, then I think that might have produced a different outcome."I'm aware of Labour people who I know voted Yes and I know were in favour of independence, who never said so."I think it would have been possible for the party to campaign against independence as an official position,
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