NEWLY elected Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra refused to say whether he believed Scotland has a right to "decide its own future" during a BBC interview on Sunday.
The MSP, who this weekend became the party's 11th leader of the devolution era, was asked on BBC Scotland's Sunday Show whether he will support a Scottish Government motion agreeing that "our future is for us to decide".
First Minister John Swinney had said the message is a simple one, which in theory should pass unanimously in the Chamber. It is not an explicit call to back a second independence referendum, or in favour of Scotland leaving the Union.
“I will ask them to affirm to the people who elected them their belief that Scotland is not a region – it is a proud and ancient nation, and that our future is for us to decide," Swinney said ahead of the vote.
“This is a principle that every MSP in the chamber – regardless of their view on what that future should look like – should be able to sign up to, so there is no reason why this motion cannot pass unanimously.”
However, asked about it by Gary Robertson on the BBC on Sunday, Marra refused to agree to this wording.
"Parliament is going to be asked to endorse their motion which says that the Parliament agrees that Scotland is a nation that has a right to decide its own future," the presenter put to Marra. "They say that that's a simple motion that all MSPs can back. Will you back that?"
The North East Scotland MSP responded: "So this is the first I've heard of the motion.
"I spoke to the First Minister yesterday and I was actually quite glad that, you know, these weren't the issues that we focused on. We focused on actually talking about things, issues about ... "
Robertson interrupted Marra to try and get an answer. "But can you support that motion? Parliament agrees that Scotland as a nation has a right to decide its own future."
The party leader responded: "I don't believe that a referendum is the priority of the people of Scotland right now. I'll look at the amendment, I'll speak to my colleagues ... we will come to the debate on Tuesday."
In the same interview, Marra stated that he has friends who support independence, but apparently do not want a referendum on Scotland's place in the Union.
Pointing out that he comes from Dundee, which was the strongest pro-independence area when the 2014 results came in, Marra said: "Members of my family, friends of mine, are still independence supporters, still say that they would vote if there was a referendum, but they're not asking for a referendum."
Robertson questioned whether those people would like to know how Scotland can get to the point of securing a referendum, since the Supreme Court determined Westminster's permission is needed to hold a vote.
"They're asking how you can get to the point where we can have a referendum," the BBC host said.
Marra replied: "Genuinely, Gary, they don't. You know, this is not the concern that they are raising with me - what they want to talk about is what's happening in our schools. They want to know about the state of the NHS. The last couple of weeks, the Pisa figures."
The new party leader repeated his view that it will be "clear" when the public want another vote, without explaining what metrics he would be looking at.
Meanwhile, Marra is calling on the country’s First Minister to set up a special commission to get Scotland “back on track” and meet its child poverty targets.
Legislation passed by Holyrood commits the Government to reducing the number of youngsters living in poverty to less than 10% by 2030-31.
Marra called for action from all parties as he warned that, as it stands, Scotland is “going to miss those targets by a mile”.
In his first act after becoming Scottish Labour’s new leader on Saturday, he wrote to John Swinney and the leaders of the other parties at Holyrood calling for a new commission to be established.
This body would then be tasked with drawing up a set of proposals that could brought in in time for the 2030 target.
