WHEN I was growing up, the Labour Party claimed to be champions of solidarity. They used to say that it didn’t matter if you were a factory worker in Belfast or Bradford, in Swansea or Stonehaven – it was only Labour that was on the side of working people. Putting aside disagreements over policy, at least that approach was one that I could understand stemmed from a principled position. How far the current pool of Labour politicians has fallen. Just a fortnight ago we learned from the SNP leader of Glasgow City Council her belief that Labour councillors are planning to join her in campaigning to rip Scotland out of the UK and only days ago Sir Keir Starmer played straight into the hands of the nationalists.

Six years ago I proudly stood alongside Labour colleagues – because we both recognised the unequivocal benefits that Scotland being an integral part of the UK brought. Now Labour politicians are tripping over themselves running away from the part they played in Better Together. Well, they might now be ashamed of the democratic decision that the people of Scotland made in 2014 and believe that allying themselves with the narrow nationalism of the SNP will offer them short-term electoral gains, but my principles are not so easily cast aside.

Last week, I wrote about how Tory proposals offer a route map to restoring educational standards after a decade of neglect by the SNP. This past week, while we were pushing Nicola Sturgeon in the Scottish Parliament to live up to her promise to make education her number one priority and ditch her plans for another divisive independence referendum, the leader of the UK Labour Party was indicating to Sky News that he could back another vote on separation. What a betrayal of the many thousands of Labour voters in Glasgow who entrusted the party to protect our place in the UK.

Coming only a matter of weeks after the failed coup against Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard, it is clear that the Labour Party in Scotland is now in a state of total disarray.

To see Labour politicians now repudiating the values of solidarity and unity in favour of the kind of narrow and divisive nationalism peddled by the SNP is beyond disappointing, although I confess not entirely surprising. If Labour councillors in Glasgow choose to join with those that promote division within our society and wish to tear our country apart then I will oppose them every step of the way.

And if the Labour leadership in Scotland and the UK decide to acquiesce to the SNP then it will be confirmed to voters beyond doubt that the Scottish Conservatives are the only party willing and able to move us forward from the divisions of the past and face the challenges of what I believe will be a brighter future.