KEZIA Dugdale came under more pressure over her party’s position on nuclear weapons after two Labour MSPs backed an SNP motion calling for the renewal of Trident to be scrapped.
Neil Findlay and Malcolm Chisholm both signed Christina McKelvie’s motion criticising Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement that he would spend £500 million on the Naval Base Clyde at Faslane.
Dugdale has said there will be an open debate on Trident at the Scottish Labour conference in Perth later this month.
On her website Dugdale, a multilateralist when it comes to disarmament, says she believes “decisions made on the future of Trident should be based on evidence (including cost considerations) rather than on political party interest”.
McKelvie today welcomed the Labour MSPs’ support but said it “only increases confusion about Labour’s position both north and south of the Border”.
“Given that Labour’s UK leader, their deputy leader in Scotland, their only Scottish MP and now two senior MSPs are making clear that their party should vote with the SNP against Trident, Kezia Dugdale is looking increasingly isolated,” she added.
Findlay, who ran Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign in Scotland, is a long-time unilateralist on nuclear weapons.
It’s not the first time Chisholm has backed an SNP call to scrap nuclear weapons. In 2006, he resigned as communities minister in Jack McConnell’s Cabinet to back an SNP motion condemning Trident’s renewal.