The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
DAY OF DAYS:
Dugdale furious with Sturgeon who’s called a ‘clype’ by Davidson
Brexit, austerity, indyref2 and national security – Britain goes to polls with a lot to weigh up.
Kezia Dugdale is “unlikely” to speak to Nicola Sturgeon on a personal level again after the First Minister revealed details of a personal conversation between the two, The Courier has been told.
Sources close to the Scottish Labour leader were left furious after Ms Sturgeon said she 100% stands by her claim Ms Dugdale told her she would drop her party’s opposition to a second independence referendum in the wake of the vote for Brexit.
The First Minister has come under fire from some quarters for apparently revealing details of a private conversation she had with Ms Dugdale in the immediate aftermath of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
Asked about the possibility of further private conversations, one insider said: “It is unlikely she (Ms Dugdale) will ever speak to her (Ms Sturgeon) again.”
Ms Sturgeon’s claims, made in STV’s live TV leaders’ debate, prompted Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson to call her a “clype”.
As the leaders clashed at First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood the day before the general election, she pressed the SNP leader on the issue, demanding to know “why she believes private conversations shouldn’t stay private?”
Ms Sturgeon said she did believe that – but claimed Ms Dugdale had already made the conversation public knowledge when she referred to it in a newspaper interview in February.
“That is what gave me the ability to talk about that,” the First Minister said.
“The part, of course, in that conversation that Kezia Dugdale didn’t refer to was the part I spoke about last night and stand by 100%.”
In the election debate on Tuesday, Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Labour leader had told her the vote for Brexit in June 2016 “changed everything” and “Labour should stop opposing a referendum”.
But with the election taking place today, the SNP leader went on to accuse her rivals of using the issue of independence as a “smokescreen” in the election campaign.
Ms Dugdale said: “If the last 24 hours show us anything, it is that the First Minister will say anything to deflect from the SNP’s appalling record in office.”
Ms Sturgeon replied: “I know what I said in that conversation and so does she. I am standing here in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament and I am certain about what was said.”
Ms Dugdale was chastised twice by the Presiding Officer for using unparliamentary language after saying “so, there are enough nurses in the health service, that’s the latest fib from the First Minister” and adding that the SNP leader was “not telling the truth”.
The Courier has also been told, however, that Ms Sturgeon told allies that Kezia Dugdale wanted to drop Labour’s opposition to a second independence referendum last July.
One associate of the First Minister, not part of her staff or on the books of the SNP, said the revelation came up in conversation on July 4 last year.
And a Labour insider said Finance Secretary Derek Mackay was making the same claims last summer.