After more than a week of turmoil Scottish Labour ended up back virtually at square one yesterday, when MSPs at Holyrood reserved the right to vote against a referendum bill in 2010.

Wendy Alexander sparked a period of political crisis 10 days ago when she made her "bring it on" offer over an independence referendum, causing the Prime Minister confusion and deep embarrassment at Westminster.

Over the following days both she and her shadow minister for parliamentary business, Duncan McNeill, said Labour would not vote against the right of the people to have a say in their constitutional future.

But whereas last week saw Mr McNeill make a statement after the Labour group meeting, followed by a full media conference by Ms Alexander, yesterday's atmosphere was very different. MSPs began slipping away to attend committee meetings and when the group meeting finally ended after well over an hour there was no statement.

Indeed, Mr McNeill and Ms Alexander ended up being pursued through Holyrood by journalists asking what had been decided. Eventually, Mr McNeill said: "The group set out its position last week in regard to the referendum. That doesn't mean we will give up the right to scrutinise any bills that come before this parliament - that's our job."

Ms Alexander's spokesman said: "We cannot speculate on parliamentary tactics three years from now and Wendy was quite right last week, as Duncan was as well, in mentioning the word scrutiny. We will scrutinise any bill and it will all be down to the wording and the timescale."

But as recently as Sunday Ms Alexander had told the BBC: "We think that the people of Scotland should be allowed to speak and we will not vote down the opportunity for Scots to speak."

This has been interpreted as meaning that if Labour do not like the eventual wording of the referendum question or the timing of the poll they could abstain but not vote against it.

However, Labour chief whip Michael McMahon told The Herald last night: "What we are saying is, we made you an offer, you spurned it so all bets are off. Now if the SNP bring forward their own bill we have said we will look at it but we are not committed to supporting it."

But could yesterday's group meeting mean that Labour could actually vote against such a bill? Mr McMahon said: "Yes."

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "Labour in the Scottish Parliament led by Wendy Alexander is now utterly ridiculous. She must accept responsibility for this ludicrous series of U-turns that have left Labour turned inside out."

She added that "bring it on" had been brought down, adding: "Labour must now be very close to bringing Wendy Alexander down as their Holyrood leader. Her position is now impossible and completely untenable."

Tory Chief Whip David McLetchie said: "Utter farce has been followed by utter chaos. Labour don't know where they are going."

Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen said: "Today the Labour Party has made a seventh attempt to redefine the conditions in which they would support a referendum. Anyone trying to keep pace with Labour's ever-changing position would be driven to dizziness. No wonder nobody knows what Labour stand for any more."

But Malcolm Chisholm, appointed during the present crisis to a new post of constitutional affairs spokesman, said: "We believe that the Scottish people have a right to have a say in the future of Scotland, but as we made clear all of last week we are not going to give the SNP a blank cheque on the question, the voting system, the timetabling or scrutiny of any bill."