23AUG

Marra's MSPs vote for right to decide

4 min read

19:09UTC

Three days after Michael Marra won the Scottish Labour leadership, all 17 of his MSPs backed John Swinney's motion on Scotland's right to decide its own future.

← Back to Reform loses three wards, wins Clacton Jump to analysis ↓

PoliticsAssessed

Key takeaway

Scottish Labour backed Scotland's right to decide without backing a referendum.

Michael Marra won the Scottish Labour leadership on Saturday 19 September with 4,266 of 6,751 votes, beating Joe Fagan, who took the remaining 2,485⁠¹. "Scots know what we are against. They can't tell you what we are for," he said in his acceptance speech.

On Tuesday 22 September all 17 Labour members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) voted for First Minister John Swinney's motion that "Scotland is a nation that has a right to decide its own future"⁠². Labour first wrote its own text into it: Marra's amendment, making child poverty "an immediate national priority" and recommitting to the 2030 target in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, passed 91 to 12. The motion as amended then passed 84 to 18, with the Scottish National Party (SNP), Labour and the Scottish Greens for, and the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Liberal Democrats against. Reform UK's 17 MSPs voted in none of the five divisions, and the amendment tabled in Malcolm Offord's name was spoken to but never moved⁠³.

The phrase "right to decide" echoes the Claim of Right that Scottish Labour has signed up to before, so the vote does not commit Marra's party to an independence referendum. Andy Burnham has already said he will refuse a Section 30 order, the transfer of power Holyrood needs to hold one lawfully.

At council level the SNP lost ground and gained it back. In City of Edinburgh Council by-elections held on 3 September, Labour's Ruth Elliott won Southside/Newington with 2,153 votes and The Greens' Lorenzo Martinico won Portobello/Craigmillar with 1,781⁠⁴; The Scotsman reports both seats were taken from the SNP. On 17 September the SNP's Leigh Payne gained Avondale and Stonehouse on South Lanarkshire Council from an independent, with first preferences of SNP 27.6%, Labour 20.0% and Reform UK 19.6%⁠⁵.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Scotland has its own Parliament at Holyrood, which runs health, schools and much else. Big constitutional questions, including whether Scotland can leave the UK, are kept by the UK Parliament at Westminster. The Scottish Labour Party, part of UK Labour, opposes independence. Its new leader, Michael Marra, still had his members vote for a motion by John Swinney, the Scottish National Party First Minister, saying Scotland can decide its own future. The motion changes no law. A new independence referendum would still need permission from the UK Government, which Labour runs and which has said no.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

The Scotland Act 1998 reserves the Union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England to Westminster. Any binding referendum therefore needs a Section 30 order from the UK Government, which a Holyrood motion cannot compel.

Scottish Labour needs votes from people who support independence or are open to it, so it avoids voting against Scotland's right to choose. Voting for a declaratory motion costs it little while Westminster holds the legal key.

Reform UK and Labour each hold 17 seats. Labour's vote with the SNP separates it from the other unionist parties at the moment Reform is competing for the same pro-Union voters.

What could happen next?

Consequence
The SNP enters its October conference able to cite a Holyrood resolution backed by a unionist party, while Labour can point to its own amendment as the reason it voted.
Short term · Assessed
Risk
Scottish Conservatives and Reform UK can now campaign as the only parties that did not vote for Swinney's text, competing for pro-Union voters Labour once held.
Medium term · Suggested
Meaning
Marra's first parliamentary act tied the party's identity to child poverty rather than to the constitution.
Short term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: In 1989 Scottish Labour MPs signed the Claim of Right at the Scottish Constitutional Convention, accepting that sovereignty rests with the Scottish people. The Convention's plan produced devolution through the 1997 referendum, not independence, showing a unionist party can sign a sovereignty text and steer it elsewhere.

Counter-parallel: In 2012 the Edinburgh Agreement gave Holyrood a Section 30 order and led to the 2014 referendum. In November 2022 the UK Supreme Court ruled that Holyrood cannot legislate for a referendum without such consent, so a Holyrood motion alone opens no legal route.

Immediate: Marra's amendment recommits Holyrood to the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 target of fewer than one in 10 children in relative poverty by 2030, and praises the Scottish Child Payment. Meeting a statutory target in four years puts pressure on the 2027-28 Scottish budget.

Structural: in his first speeches Marra backed approval of the Rosebank and Jackdaw North Sea fields and earlier Reform of the oil and gas windfall tax, ahead of its planned 2030 replacement. That puts Scottish Labour closer to the north-east energy industry than to the Scottish Greens who voted with it on 22 September.

Consensus view: The Holyrood division list shows the parties that oppose independence splitting three ways on 22 September: Labour for, the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Liberal Democrats against, and Reform UK's 17 members not voting. Russell Findlay's Conservative amendment fell 12 to 85, and David Green's Liberal Democrat amendment fell 35 to 68.

Counter-view: Labour's reading is that 'right to decide' restates a sovereignty principle it has long accepted, not a process. Marra framed his leadership around policy, telling members that 'Scots know what we are against. They can't tell you what we are for' on 19 September.

Key tension: Whether the SNP can present a motion that Labour helped write as cross-party backing for a referendum, or whether Labour's amendment fixes it as a statement about child poverty and self-government in general.

Sources:Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce (via energy-pedia)·Scottish Parliament·Scottish Parliament

Mentions:Michael Marra →Scottish Labour →John Swinney →Joe Fagan →Scottish Parliament →Scottish National Party (SNP) →Reform UK →Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 →Scottish Greens →Scottish Conservatives →Liberal Democrats →Malcolm Offord →Claim of Right for Scotland →Section 30 order →Andy Burnham →Ruth Elliott →Lorenzo Martinico →Leigh Payne →Edinburgh Council →South Lanarkshire Council →Russell Findlay →Edinburgh Agreement →Labour Party →Parliament →Westminster →UK Government →Holyrood →The Scotsman →Scotland →Edinburgh →Supreme Court of the United Kingdom →North Sea →Scottish Liberal Democrats →Scotland Act 1998 →Scottish Constitutional Convention →David Green →Avondale and Stonehouse →Southside/Newington →Scottish Child Payment →Rosebank oil field →Jackdaw gas field →

First Reported In

Update #18 · Legal advice halts England's council mergers

Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce (via energy-pedia)· 7 Oct 2026

Read original →

Causes and effects

Caused by

Lennon is off the Scottish Labour ballot

The two-candidate ballot set in August produced Marra's win on 19 September.

Occurred 17 Aug 2026

Read story →

Burnham rules out a Scottish vote

Burnham's refusal of a Section 30 order limits what the Holyrood vote can deliver.

Occurred 7 Jul 2026

Read story →

This Event

Marra's MSPs vote for right to decide

Scottish Labour has put its name to the SNP's constitutional language without committing to a referendum that Westminster has already refused.

Different Perspectives

Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.

Michael Marra / Scottish Labour

Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.

Andy Burnham / Labour Party

Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Conservative Party (frontbench peers and Kemi Badenoch)

Conservative frontbench peers argued against retrospective rules at the Lords Second Reading on 14 September, a position that protects gifts made before any cap. Kemi Badenoch rejected Burnham's electoral reform commission on 2 October, accusing him of using it to entrench the left.

Reform UK

Reform denied wrongdoing after the Channel 4 News programme, called the sting a hoax by climate activists and said it would cooperate with the Metropolitan Police. In the same month it announced £36m gifts from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.

Steff Aquarone / Liberal Democrats (North Norfolk)

Aquarone told Rayner in the Commons on 7 September that North Norfolk District Council had spent money preparing for a reorganisation the Government has now withdrawn. He puts the cost of the cancelled merger on districts in the four areas.