A SCOTTISH Labour MSP has branded Gordon Brown’s report on the future of the UK as “stale” and “irrelevant”.
Former deputy leader Alex Rowley also accused his own party of trying to ignore the constitution as an issue.
This comes ahead of the party’s conference in Edinburgh.
Former prime minister Brown was asked by Keir Starmer to chair a commission on the future of the Union.
Key recommendations included abolishing the “indefensible” House of Lords and more powers for devolved nations including Scotland.
Both are ideas which have been floated several times in the past by Labour but not delivered on.
The Daily Record reports that senior figures in Scottish Labour want to see Starmer commit to an ambitious programme of devolution should he be elected as prime minister.
In an article for Red Paper Collective, Rowley was critical of his party’s approach arguing that the debate on independence suited the Tories and SNP at the expense of Labour.
He wrote: “So, whilst both these parties use the constitutional question to win over voters, the general approach from Labour since the 2014 referendum has been ‘don’t mention the constitution’.
“Labour believes it can rise above a petty dispute over independence and, despite all the evidence to the contrary, the line tends to be that people are more interested in the NHS, in education and in day-to-day life than they are in the constitution.”
On Brown’s report, he added: “Whilst there was much to welcome, and indeed much at a UK level that would support greater devolution in Scotland, the report does not acknowledge how much further Scotland is down the road of devolution when compared with its neighbours and, as such, fails to address the need for a new settlement between Scotland and the rest of the UK.
“Therefore, the report appears stale on delivery, irrelevant to a Scotland that has already been debating the merits of further devolution or, indeed, independence, for over a decade at a national level.”
A Scottish Labour spokesperson told the Record that “Alex Rowley is not Scottish Labour’s Constitution spokesperson”.
Rowley, an MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, backed “greater” borrowing levers and the devolution of immigration powers as examples of the next stage of devolution.
SNP MSP Rona Mackay said: "It’s telling how divided Scottish Labour is on the constitution when Alex Rowley – a key lieutenant of Gordon Brown for many years – dismisses his old boss’s plans as stale and irrelevant.
"The big reveal planned for this weekend has already been undermined.
"This is the same cauld kale het again that Brown has been trying to flog for years now. Labour stalwart Rowley is stating the bleeding obvious by confirming what we already knew – Labour has nothing to offer Scotland now or in the future.
“The simple fact is that no amount of constitutional tinkering will undo the damage of this hard Brexit – which Labour now supports as vehemently as the Tories.
“But instead of recognising and respecting Scotland’s democratic right to choose an independent future, the Labour party will impose whatever ineffectual and futile plan Brown trots out - even if the people of Scotland overwhelmingly reject Labour at the next election.
"They really are no better than the Tories.
“Scotland’s only route back to the EU is to become an independent country.”
