Timetable of a U-Turn

'There is no question of the Labour Party supporting calls for a referendum on a Scottish Parliament.' Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland George Robertson, 12 th February 1996.

How 'no question' gradually became two questions

By Peter MacMahon, Scottish Political Editor, in the Scotsman, 7 th September 1996

10 March
Mr Robertson says on Scottish Television 'The general election will be the referendum.'

17 May
The Scotsman's political editor, Ewen MacAskill, reports in a front-page article that Labour is reconsidering its commitment to the tax-raising element of a Scottish parliament, a commitment going back more than a decade.

20 May
Mr Robertson writes an article for The Scotsman condemning the MacAskill piece as 'a compilation of innuendo, anonymous quotation and pure speculation'. He writes that Labour is sticking by its 'clear promise' to deliver a Scottish Parliament with tax-raising powers.

25 June
The situation has apparently changed dramitically. A columnist, Don Macintyre, is tipped off about a rethink and in the Independent hints gently that the party may be about to do a U-turn on a devolution referendum.

26 June
Andrew Marr, former Scotsman political editor and now Independent editor, breaks the news story under his byline.

27 June
Mr Robertson formally announces Labour's plans for a referendum asking whether Scottish voters want a parliament and whether it should have tax-raising powers. Labour's chief whip, Donald Dewar, said 'There is no change of policy.' John McAllion, Labour's constitutional spokesman, was not consulted about the no-change and resigns. Lord Ewing, the Labour peer, resigns from his post as co-chairman of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, which took six years to come up with plans which had the support of a wide variety of Scottish orgnisations.

28 June
Tony Blair arrives in Scotland and persuades the party executive to back the referendum plans, but crucially agrees to allow members to come up with their own wording.

31 August
Labour's Scottish executive is split between having one question or two. Faced with possible defeat for the official two-question line, Mr Robertson accepts a compromise that there should be three. The electorate will be asked if it wants a Scottish parliament and if the parliament should have tax-raising powers. If the answer is yes, the second question will be repeated in a second referendum.
Mr Robertson says 'The people of Scotland want to be asked. They should be asked twice. The Scottish executive committee has come to a considered and decisive decision.'
Mr Blair says 'I welcome the mature and sensible decision of the Scottish executive committee.'

1 September
The new policy is widely condemned. Mr McAllion points out that Labour has, in the space of two months, moved from a position of opposition to a referendum to one whereby it requires the electorate to vote in favour of home rule no fewer than five times.

6 September
The Scotsman reveals that Labour is set to drop the idea of a second referendum. The latest U-turn comes days before Mr Blair's visit to Scotland, when he would have had to defend the policy.