Not another one! Dugdale calls for second snap general election

Kezia Dugdale has called for another general election to “get the Tories out of office”.

The Scottish Labour leader said the party is still on an election footing and would “relish” a rerun.

Speaking at Westminster, Ms Dugdale said: “We’ve had five electoral contests in Scotland in the last two-and-a-half years. Why not have a sixth if it means getting the Tories out of office?

“They clearly have no mandate for a hard Brexit and no mandate for their austerity platform. Labour has articulated how we can end austerity, how we can stop the cuts to benefits, how we can stop the cuts to public services.

“If delivering that means another electoral contest in October, then I think that’s something that everybody in the Scottish Labour Party would relish. The Lothians MSP added: “We are still very much on an election footing and that’s a contest we would relish.

“We will take any opportunity we can to get the Tories out of office because of the damage they’re doing to working people, so of course we would welcome another election.”

Labour defied most opinion polls to increase their number of MPs in Scotland from one to seven in this month’s election.

In Courier Country, they prised Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from the SNP with the constituency’s new MP, Lesley Laird, taking up the role of shadow Scottish secretary.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn last week told his supporters to stay in “permanent campaign mode” in case Theresa May’s government falls. The Tories are in talks with the DUP over a deal which would see the Northern Irish MPs prop up a minority executive.