make Scottish labour Scottish.
to win again, Scottish labour needs to be seen to stand up for scotland.
we can only begin doing that as a separate scottish party.
just for scotland.
We believe in Scotland. That’s why our party argued for and delivered devolution. That’s why we’re campaigning for our party to change now.
We believe in dynamic unions: trade unions, the redistributive union of these islands, and the unions of our continent.
We believe in social democracy: in justice & solidarity, public services, and the dignity of labour.
Political parties are vehicles to put beliefs into practice. To do that, Scottish Labour must become a separate party. No suspicion of divided loyalties. Just for Scotland.
This is not a campaign of one faction or wing. The idea has support across the party. Everyone is welcome.
In the media
“Breaking away as a new and fresh centre-left party that supports the UK is an idea gaining traction. Scottish Labour should be judged on its own merits, rather than being used as mid-term whipping boys for the UK Government.
“Carrying on as before will see Labour record an even poorer result in 2031. Just For Scotland has come forward with a bold plan that should be debated in good faith.
“The status quo is not an option and Scottish Labour needs a radical rethink.”
Daily Record
“People think the SNP are doing badly but vote for them anyway.”
“At the end of the day, people want a party that is seen to stand up for Scotland. Full stop.”
“Election losses have previously prompted Scottish Labour to turn left, right, and round in circles. Regardless, we keep losing. The question is no longer whether Scottish Labour faces a crisis. It is whether we are willing to confront its causes.
“Nor is this, at its core, simply an issue of party organisation. We have adjusted structures before, tinkered with Scottish and UK Labour arrangements, and rewritten rule books. Voters do not notice or care who runs selections, where party discipline is enforced, or how funding is distributed.”
LabourList
“There are discussions going on inside Scottish Labour. This is not something that would be completely alien to the Labour movement. The SDLP in Northern Ireland split from the Labour Party, they’re a sister party, they support the Labour government at Westminster. But when Claire Hanna [leader of the SDLP] knocks on a door in Belfast, nobody says ‘you’re Keir Starmer’s person aren’t you? I’m not going to vote for you.’ Nobody makes that link at all. But Anas Sarwar is [seen as] Starmer’s person.”
Andy MacIver, Holyrood Sourceswhat does polling suggest?
Signing up to our mailing list is the best way of getting involved. You’ll be invited to virtual organising sessions and informed of names you’ll recognise coming aboard.
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Almost half of Scottish 2026 voters want a "stronger Scotland in a changed Britain" as the "best path for Scotland's future". 3 in 5 of 2024 labour voters who chose not to vote scottish labour agree with that.
Persuasion UK, May 2026: https://cdn.persuasionuk.org/May_2026_elections_preliminary_analysis_7325311b0f.pdf
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Scottish labour does very badly with 2014 'yes' voters: only 8% of them who voted in 2026 backed scottish labour. We clearly lead among those who voted 'no' in 2014 plus 'remain' in 2016, though only 3 in 10 of that cohort backing the party.
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The single biggest reason 2024 Labour voters in Scotland chose not to back Scottish Labour in 2026 - by a significant margin - was because they were "unhappy with UK Labour and Keir Starmer".
Persuasion UK, May 2026: https://cdn.persuasionuk.org/May_2026_elections_preliminary_analysis_7325311b0f.pdf
figures from across our movement on a party just for scotland:
“Scottish Labour should act decisively upon the central lesson learned and for which I have long argued. It is to become an autonomous party which is not constantly bound by the constraints of dual identity.
“Coming from me, as a long-term sceptic about the relative risks and rewards of political devolution, this may seem paradoxical, but it is not. The paradox lies with those who were ardently pro-devolution but have never taken the intellectual trouble to forestall the difficulty this creates for a Scottish party that is also bound to a UK parent.”
“Scottish Labour needs to stand or fall by its own decisions. We either continue at the mercy of the UK party’s distant structures or we become a party in our own right.
“Scottish Labour has a proud history, but the future matters more. It’s time we took responsibility into our own hands.”
“What we will do is look at the lessons to be learned.
“We'll look at what people are telling us in the party and come to conclusions about that."
“We were seen as part of UK Labour as people were unhappy with the government.”
“It’s really important that we can have these debates.
“It must not be shut down.”
Any questions?
Still have questions? Feel free to get in touch on hello@justscotland.win
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No. Whether the name of a separate Scottish party remains Scottish Labour or changes, the campaign in absolutely no way wants to compete with the existing party. We work within Scottish Labour to encourage the party to separate itself from UK Labour.
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Parties and nations are very different. Parties are vehicles to put values into practice; nations are much bigger than that. No-one with Scotland’s best interests at heart would equate a party with the great nation of Scotland.
We strongly believe in unions, in devolution, and in Scotland. None of these are in conflict.
Plenty of other devolved and federal countries have similar arrangements, where parties that hold similar values nonetheless run separately.
Scottish Labour was the party of devolution, and we think that separating ourselves from UK Labour would be a constructive move to further mature a devolved Scotland.
We must be confident in our beliefs and arguments: unionism is entirely compatible with passion for devolution.
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We would certainly want to maintain links of solidarity with UK Labour, as a sister party of social democracy.
There are many models around the world to borrow from. The SDLP in Northern Ireland is a good example, but Quebec and Bavaria also offer models to learn from.
Part of Just Scotland’s work will be to produce position papers that work through the detail and reassure those who are persuaded in principle but perhaps not yet in practice.
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No. The review has an important role in bringing candidates and key activists together with the governance of our party.
We encourage any campaign members taking part in the review to feed back their desire to see a separate party just for Scotland.
But the gravity of our situation is such that the campaign is unlikely to drop its aims if the review finds that seismic changes to our brand are not urgent.
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Jack McConnel, who was Scottish Labour’s candidate for Galloway & West Dumfries in this election, is coordinating the campaign with others from pockets across the spectrum of our party.
We plan to make announcements of significant figures in the campaign over the coming weeks and months.
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No. The campaign doesn’t take a position on the leadership of UK Labour.
However, we do note the close link between the fortunes of Scottish Labour in Holyrood elections and that of UK Labour, and we want to break that link: we should succeed or fail on our own merits.
In every election since 1999, and particularly since we lost government, Scottish Labour has lost vote share and MSPs.
There are many reasons for this, and members will have diverse analyses, but this campaign is solely focussed on making Scottish Labour Scottish. That is a prerequisite for anything else to follow.