Dugdale now says her party will work with the new leader
KEZIA Dugdale yesterday pledged to work closely with Jeremy Corbyn to make Labour more ‘radical’ in Scotland – despite previously warning against electing him leader.
The Scottish Labour leader said the Left-wing MP’s landslide victory proves ‘politics has changed’ and people want ‘radical policies’.
She said she is looking forward to working with the 66-year-old – just over a month after she warned he could leave Labour ‘carping from the sidelines’ in opposition.
Mr Corbyn is planning a victory parade in Scotland in the coming days as he attempts to win back Left-wing voters who have deserted Labour for the SNP.
Miss Dugdale, 34, said: ‘Today shows politics has changed. People are calling for radical change and straight talk. Jeremy’s election shows that the party has listened to that call and I look forward to working with him.
‘I have already said I want people to take another look at the Labour Party. I want to say that again today. I hope those who were lost to us in the past will start to listen again as both Jeremy and I put forward radical policies we hope will win back support for Labour.’
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said Mr Corbyn will ‘flee the Centre ground for a hard Left comfort zone which promotes policies of the 1970s’, leaving the Tories as the ‘moderate Centre ground’ party north of the Border.
But Miss Dugdale said: ‘The policies of the Scottish Labour Party will be determined by me and I recognise that before you can redistribute wealth you have got to create it, so I will put forward a pro-business agenda in Scotland.’
Miss Dugdale last month warned Labour members against electing
Mr Corbyn as leader, saying: ‘I don’t want to spend my whole life just carping from the sidelines’.
Yesterday, she refused to say if she had voted for him.
Nicola Sturgeon said a ‘bitterly divided’ Labour party would make more people decide independence is the only alternative to continued Tory government. Senior party figures also challenged Mr Corbyn to work with the SNP to ‘oppose Tory austerity and Trident renewal’.
But Miss Dugdale insisted Scottish Labour remains ‘united’ – and that Mr Corbyn will not form an alliance with the Nationalists.
Referring to the prospect of an SNP/Labour pact at Westminster, she said: ‘I don’t think that is about to happen. Jeremy Corbyn is keen to understand what life in Scotland is like. He will work with me and he understands that policies in Scotland will be determined by me.
‘But Jeremy Corbyn is as anti-independence as I am: there’s no issue there.’