Senior figures in the Scottish Labour party are investigating proposals for Scotland and Northern Ireland to have separate federated membership of the EU after last week’s Brexit vote.

Senior party sources have told the Guardian that the former Labour lord chancellor and justice secretary Charlie Falconer is consulting constitutional lawyers on whether a new federal relationship would be a legally sound alternative route to a full divorce between the EU and all parts of the UK.

The initiative was launched on Friday, hours after it emerged that Scotland and Northern Ireland had voted comprehensively against leaving the EU, and was agreed with by Ian Murray, the then shadow Scottish secretary, and Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader.

Party sources said Lord Falconer’s work would focus on a possible federal deal where each devolved region could negotiate their own membership of the EU, while staying in the UK.

Although the UK as a whole voted by 52% to 48% to leave the EU last Thursday, Scotland voted 62% to 38% to remain and Northern Ireland voted by 56% to 44% to stay.

The Labour initiative is also tentatively exploring whether English city regions, particularly London which also voted heavily to remain in the EU, could benefit as part of a wider federal reorganisation across the UK. “This debate has to be about a constitutional settlement with Europe, and not a constitutional settlement in the UK,” said one source. It could involve the UK having some form of greater federal structure to give the EU deal greater authority and legal standing, he added.

Another senior figure said the initiative was agreed by the Scottish party’s national executive on Saturday. Party leaders admit privately that if this route fails and the UK quits the EU, Labour may need to consider backing a full Scottish independence referendum.

Murray, who stepped down as shadow Scottish secretary on Sunday during the revolt against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, said the uncertainty and delays since Friday’s result allowed pro-EU parties to examine other options.

“Given the unprecedented nature of the situation, one option that should be investigated is a federalised membership structure that allows constituent parts of the UK continued membership whilst protecting Scotland’s position in the UK, which is even more important for trade, jobs and opportunities,” he said.

The initiative mirrors Nicola Sturgeon’s disclosure on Saturday that she too was anxious to establish whether Scotland could win some form of associative status, to retain its access to the EU single market, and avoid a full independence referendum which could be difficult to win.

The first minister is pressing for a meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, but sources in Brussels say that is only likely to happen “when the first wave of diplomacy [on Brexit] is over”. An EU diplomat said the EU is “far away from talking to Scotland about membership.”

Sturgeon will address MSPs on Tuesday in Holyrood’s first debate on the shock referendum result. She will seek a cross-party mandate to ask the EU for talks on alternative options for Scotland.

She said on Monday: “I am now determined to explore every avenue to retain Scotland’s EU status. [I] am specifically asking parliament to strengthen my hand by giving me a mandate to pursue discussions about protecting Scotland’s place in the EU with the UK government, other devolved administrations, EU institutions and member states.”

Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, has indicated she will endorse that strategy in Tuesday’s debate. Dugdale said: “Every possible avenue must be explored to not just mitigate the impact of Brexit, but to strengthen our ties with our European neighbours. The protection of jobs and workers’ rights must be the priority.”

Those involved admit the “associative status” proposal is theoretical and based in part on two previous decisions by the EU to modify its normal membership rules. Diplomatic sources in Brussels said the only realistic route for Scotland to stay in the EU after Brexit would be to apply as an independent country.



During a Commons debate on Friday’s vote, David Cameron, the outgoing prime minister, indicated that he too supported some form of Scottish deal with the EU while staying as part of the UK. He told the Scottish National party’s Westminster leader, Angus Robertson: “Scotland benefits from being in two single markets – the United Kingdom and the European single market. In my view, the best outcome is to try and keep Scotland in both.”

Rejoining the EU could take five to seven years and would require the unanimous consent of EU member states. While several EU politicians are sympathetic to Scotland’s plight, it is far from clear whether Scottish membership would win support from Spain, which is reluctant to boost the chances of separatists in Catalonia.

Those looking at the associative status route say the main precedent is the vote by Greenland, legally part of the EU member state Denmark, to leave the then European Economic Community (EEC) in 1984 – in a dispute over fisheries policy – but to retain some EU ties and privileges.



The EEC also allowed West Germany to absorb East Germany after reunification in 1990, and to extend West Germany’s membership to the former Communist-ruled country.

Ben Thomson, an Edinburgh-based financier and former chairman of the thinktank Reform Scotland who set up a cross-party initiative on quasi-federal “home rule” for Scotland as an alternative to full independence, said he supported this initiative. “I would be up for revisiting home rule, particularly if home rule meant Northern Ireland and Scotland in particular were able to stay part of the EU,” he said.

• This article was amended on 28 June 2016. An earlier version quoted David Cameron as saying in the House of Commons that Scotland benefited from being in two single markets – the United Kingdom and the European Union. That has been corrected to “the United Kingdom and the European single market”.