Labour will ‘grind country to a halt’ with £155m plan for two referendums in a year

Johnson warns of national paralysis with prospect of Sturgeon using Union as a bargaining chip for vote

‘The real cost will be the chaos of two referendums and the world’s greatest political union reduced to the status of a bargaining chip’

JEREMY CORBYN would cost the country £155 million by paving the way for two referendums if he becomes prime minister, the Conservatives said.

Boris Johnson has said Labour would “grind the country to a halt” with fresh referendums on Brexit and Scottish independence taking months to deliver.

The Prime Minister has also warned against using the Union of the United Kingdom as a bargaining chip after Nicola Sturgeon said an independence referendum in 2020 would be a condition for the SNP’S support of Labour if no party was to win an overall majority.

The First Minister said in last week’s Question Time that while there was no formal deal with Mr Corbyn, she believed that “if the parliamentary arithmetic enables this, Jeremy Corbyn is not going to turn his back on an opportunity for a UK Labour government just because he’s determined to block the right of the Scottish people to choose their own future”.

In the same show Mr Corbyn said he would not allow a Scottish referendum for “two years at least”, opening the door to further years of uncertainty.

A second Brexit referendum would cost £138million, while a second Scottish independence vote would come to £17million, according to Tory analysis published today. Mr Johnson said: “A majority Conservative government would get Brexit done and focus on the people’s priorities, such as increasing funding in our NHS and reducing the cost of living. The alternative is Jeremy Corbyn, a man who can’t even make up his mind on Brexit, submitting to a pact with Nicola Sturgeon, and we already know what terms she will demand.”

On the eve of his visit to Scotland to launch his Scottish manifesto, Mr

Johnson added: “The real cost will be much, much higher: the chaos of two referendums in 2020 grinding the country to a halt and the world’s greatest political union reduced to the status of a bargaining chip.”

Labour has pledged to hold a second Brexit vote within six months if Jeremy Corbyn won. But Tory analysis said that would be “impossible” given Labour’s pledge to first negotiate a new deal with Brussels. Using Electoral Commission figures, the Tories pointed out the 2016 referendum took 13 months and cost the taxpayer £129million.

Meanwhile, the Institute for Government, a think tank, said organising another EU vote would take at least 21 weeks. The EU Referendum Act 2016 took seven months to get Royal Assent.

Extending the voting age to 16-yearolds could cost £500 million, Tories said. Labour’s manifesto pledges to “oversee the largest extension of the franchise in generations”, adding: “Politics remains inaccessible, limited to the wealthy and connected few, and many young people feeling their future is decided for them by another generation. This includes the 1.5 million 16and 17-year-olds living in Britain who are denied the right to vote.”

The Conservatives have said that the pledge for 16-year-olds, if carried out before a second Brexit referendum, would also make Labour’s six-month pledge “completely implausible”.

Labour said Mr Johnson’s warning of a Scottish referendum in 2020 was “complete fantasy and nothing but fake news from a party with no idea of how to fix the problems they created by almost 10 years of cuts”.