THE British Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, last night won the first round of his battle to persuade his party that a referendum is the right way forward to Scottish devolution when the party's Scottish executive endorsed the proposal by 20 votes to four.
The plan has caused uproar among Scottish MPs and activists since news of it leaked to the press earlier this week.
Mr John Prescott, Labour's deputy leader, described last night's vote as "an historic decision". "It is a very strong step towards a Scottish parliament, devolution and decentralisation of power," he said.
The vote came after a meeting lasting three hours. The executive also won a guarantee that it would be involved in framing the second referendum question on tax raising powers for a parliament in Edinburgh.
Moves by critics of the new policy to stick with the existing proposal, whereby a general election win would be interpreted as a green light for a Scottish parliament, were defeated by 16 votes to five.
The executive expressed regret at the resignations of Lord Ewing and the front bench constitution spokesman, Mr John McAllion, over the issue.
Earlier, Mr Blair was booed and heckled by a small group of SNP supporters and others as he arrived at Edinburgh University.
Mr Prescott said: "Yet again, Tony Blair has shown that he will lead from the front. He will take difficult decisions and he can win the argument."
The deputy leader went on to maintain that the party was fully committed to devolution. He also insisted he had discussed the matter with Mr Blair. He admitted that Labour would not get 100 per cent for the way the referendum policy had been presented, but difficult and swift decisions had needed to be made after news leaked to a newspaper.