Corbyn back-pedals over Scottish vote after claiming he was ‘misreported’

JEREMY CORBYN has been forced to reverse his position on a second Scottish Independence referendum after suggesting a fresh vote would be “absolutely fine”.

The Labour leader provoked fury over the weekend after failing to speak out against a second referendum, despite his party fighting hard north of the border to avoid such a vote at all costs.

Mr Corbyn indicated on Sunday that he believed Westminster should not block it going ahead, prompting many moderate Labour MPs to speak out following weeks of self- imposed silence. Kezia Dugdale, the leader of Scottish Labour, said the “last thing” the country needed was “even more uncertainty and division”.

Speaking yesterday morning, Mr Corbyn confirmed the party would not block a referendum vote in Parliament, but made it clear that the party will oppose independence.

Mr Corbyn told BBC Radio 4 that “mischievous misreporting” was to blame for headlines claiming he said a second Scottish independence referendum would be “absolutely fine”.

Asked about his remarks, which prompted furious Labour MPs to warn they have had enough of Mr Corbyn making mistakes, he said his full speech had been cut down media reports.

At the conference in Glasgow on Sunday, Mr Corbyn said: “If a referendum is held then it is absolutely fine – it should be held. I don’t think it’s the job of Westminster or the Labour Party to prevent people holding referenda.”

Commenting on his remarks, Mr Corbyn told the Today programme: “No we’re not in favour of a referendum... there was a bit of mischievous misreporting going on there.

“I was asked if in Westminster we would block a referendum. I said ‘No – if the Scottish Parliament decided they want to have a referendum then it would be wrong for Westminster to block it’.” Peter Clifton, the Press Association’s editor-in-chief, hit back at the “misreporting” accusation.

He said: “The only mischievous thing about this episode is the suggestion that PA has done anything beyond what it always does – accurately report what politicians say to us in an entirely impartial way.

Mr Corbyn said yesterday: “I think that independence would be economically catastrophic for many people in Scotland. It would lead to a sort of turbo-charged austerity with the levels of income the government has in Scotland and because of the very low oil prices and the high dependency on oil tax income.”