Scottish Conservative MSP asks Labour supporters to ‘lend us your vote’ to prevent independence

A Scottish Conservative MSP is asking Labour supporters to “lend” their votes to the Tories in the general election to prevent a second independence referendum.

Annie Wells, herself a former Labour supporter, has written an open letter calling for unionist Labour voters to back her party in the forthcoming vote in order to block independence.

The Glasgow MSP said that while Labour and Conservative voters “won't agree on every issue”, most could agree that “we want to stop Nicola Sturgeon from getting indyref2”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell have both indicated that they would not block a second independence referendum if a majority of Scots called for one.

At an Edinburgh Festival Fringe show in August McDonnell told an audience, “We would not block something like that. We would let the Scottish people decide. That's democracy.”

When challenged on his position recently, Corbyn would only rule one out in the early years of a Labour government but said there could be one “at a much later stage” if the Scottish Parliament demanded it.

In the letter, Wells says that Labour is “not the Labour Party of old”.

“It’s certainly not the Labour Party of Red Clydeside or of Donald Dewar,” she says.

“It’s not even the Labour Party of Gordon Brown, who so passionately defended the union in the last moments of the 2014 referendum campaign.”

Wells claims that Jeremy Corbyn “has dumped all that” and has “decided to cave in on a second referendum to get a foot in the door” of Number 10.

Growing up in Springburn Wells says that she “was Labour,” as was her family, but she had decided to back the Conservatives during the 2014 independence referendum because she “realised that only they could be relied on 100 per cent to back Scotland’s place in the Union”.

Commenting, Wells said: “Labour and Conservative supporters won't agree on every issue, but most of us can agree that we want to stop Nicola Sturgeon from getting indyref2. 

“It’s clearer every day that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour won’t stand up to the SNP.

“Corbyn is ready to give Nicola Sturgeon another referendum as the price for the keys to Number 10.

“So this isn’t about choosing whether you’re Labour or Conservative.

“I’m just asking you to lend your vote to the Scottish Conservatives so we can all tell her again, we said no in 2014 and we meant it. 

“Please help us send Sturgeon a message that we do not want to be divided any more.

“We are fed up with referendums and we’re fed up with Nicola Sturgeon. 

“Only your vote this time for the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party can stop her.”