Your Party could back Scottish independence, says Jeremy Corbyn

The former Labour leader was in Glasgow for a series of regional assemblies when he made the comments.

Mr Corbyn said Your Party’s position on independence would be up to the members, but his “impression” is that it would be pro-independence.

Speaking to The Herald, Mr Corbyn said: “The policies will be as are laid out in the founding statement on issues of redistribution of wealth and power, taxation issues, also giving the people of Scotland the right to decide their own future.

“It will be decided by the party at the Scottish level and not be decided by me.

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“But the principle would be that if the Scottish organisation of Your Party believes that it is right to have a referendum, that will be the policy.”

When asked if Your Party would campaign for a Yes vote, Mr Corbyn said: “My impression is that most Scottish members would support independence. That is my impression and I think that is the way I am reading it.”

Mr Corbyn said he expected the party would stand in next year’s Scottish Parliament election. He said: “Everyone I have met who supports Your Party in Scotland says we should be contesting elections and I agree with them, and we should.”

He added: “It is going to be tight as a timetable because we will have the national conference in Liverpool at the end of this month and we will be holding a Scottish assembly.

“In reality that will probably be in early January, not too early January, because we have to get past the holiday period. That will be time for us to contest the Holyrood elections on the list system.”

He added: “There are people that have joined Your Party that have been in every other party, or certainly every one of the centre lefts, who are people that have been in Labour, have been in [the] Greens and so on.”

The Scottish Greens are expected to be the most vulnerable to the rise of Your Party.

Last month three Scottish Green councillors in Glasgow (Dan Hutchison, Seonad Hoy and Leodhas Massie) defected and became the first elected representatives in Scotland. Two Glasgow MSP candidates and three West Scotland MSP candidates have also defected.