WENDY Alexander faces another crunch meeting with her parliamentary colleagues today, amid continuing Labour disquiet over her decision to back a referendum on independence.
Ms Alexander, the leader of the Labour group in the Scottish Parliament, has been under increasing pressure from MPs and MSPs since she announced her decision to back an early referendum on independence ten days ago.
The Labour group of MSPs gav
e her its backing last week but, since then, Ms Alexander has declared that Labour will not block the SNP's referendum bill in 2010, effectively handing Alex Salmond an easy victory on the issue.
The Scotsman understands some Labour MSPs have misgivings about this policy and would like it discussed by the group in detail before it is agreed formally as a Labour policy.
None of the sceptics was willing to talk publicly about their concerns last night, and it was not clear if any of them would raise the issue at the meeting of the Labour group today.
However, if the issue is raised, Ms Alexander will need the unanimous support of her colleagues if she is to shut down the controversy which has raged for more than a week and plunged her party into disarray.
If MSPs support any move to re-examine the policy and pass it back to the Scottish party for its views, that will represent a major setback for Ms Alexander.
Most Labour MSPs refused to discuss the policy last night. One said he wanted "clarification" on the policy but did not say he would speak out against it.
The full article contains 270 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
