Now Kezia rules out another referendum

But Labour leader is accused of a ‘desperate’ bid for second place

KEZIA Dugdale has launched a desperate bid to win back pro-Union voters by revealing Scottish Labour would ‘rule out’ a second independence referendum.

The party leader, at risk of losing the race for second place to the Tories in May’s election, yesterday resorted to talking about the constitution after struggling to convince pro-independence voters to abandon the SNP.

Her comments came only days after the first televised leaders’ debate, in which there was a refreshing break from the constitutional argument to focus on issues such as taxation. The leaders will go headto-head again in the second debate on STV tonight.

Last year, Miss Dugdale told her MPs and MSPs they could campaign for a Yes vote in a future independence referendum.

At the time, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson accused Labour of ‘waving the white flag’. Even former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish asked: ‘What is the message we’re telling the public?’ But

‘No one will be swayed by this token nod’

writing in a tabloid newspaper yesterday, Miss Dugdale said: ‘Labour have ruled out another referendum. Nicola Sturgeon is smart enough to know the economic case for independence has collapsed.

‘She now talks about rebuilding her arguments, rather than another referendum. So the only thing that can drag us back to the arguments of the past is the Tory infighting over Europe.

‘The EU referendum is now Sturgeon’s only hope for another referendum.’

She added: ‘My judgment is that all the arguments for staying in the EU, on jobs and prosperity, are the same arguments for staying in the UK.

‘ Nearly £ 12billion of Scottish trade depends on the EU, but nearly £50billion depends on the UK.

‘So I’d still vote to stay in the UK, even if it would break my heart to leave the EU. So when Ruth Davidson’s Tories knock on your door and pose as the saviours of the Union, ask her why her party’s civil war is risking our place in both the unions that matter to Scotland.

‘I want to stay in the UK, that’s why I’m voting Labour in May. I want to stay in the EU, that’s why I’m voting for Remain in June. I don’t want to have to choose.’

But Scottish Tory chief whip John Lamont said: ‘This is a desperate attempt by Kezia Dugdale to paint herself as a defender of the Union.

‘It’s too late for that – voters know they can’t trust Labour on the constitution. She has already said her parliamentarians are free to campaign for separation and the party has run away from its involvement i n Better Together at every opportunity.

‘No one will be swayed by this 11th hour token nod to the two million No voters she’s abandoned.’

Earlier this month, the First Min- ister revealed the SNP will launch a drive this summer to convince Scots to support the ‘ beautiful dream’ of separation. She also admitted there were ‘weaknesses’ in pro-independence arguments.

Her predecessor Alex Salmond sparked fury last week when he conceded that an independent Scotland may not have been able to strike a formal deal to share the British pound. Yet during the referendum campaign he categorically told voters Chancellor George Osborne was bluffing when he ruled out a currency union between the remainder of the UK and Scotland.

The l atest opinion poll, by YouGov, put support for independence on 46 per cent, with support for the Union on 54 per cent.

A spokesman for SNP Europe Minister Humza Yousaf said last night: ‘People in Scotland will never forget Labour’s alliance with the Tories. That Kezia Dugdale has only just realised that Scotland could be dragged out of the EU by her Better Together allies shows just how much Labour have let Scotland down.’

THERE seems to be an outbreak of flipflop fever in Scottish politics. First to come down with this distressing affliction was Nicola Sturgeon. She firmly ruled out the reintroduction of a 50p ‘supertax’ on the incomes of the very wealthiest.

Yet, as Graham Grant forcefully points out elsewhere on this page, within days she was pandering to the militant element within the SNP by dangling the prospect of reintroducing a tax proven to chase money out of the country.

Now Labour’s Kezia Dugdale is showing symptoms. Last year, Miss Dugdale told her MPs and MSPs they could campaign for a Yes vote in a future independence referendum, if they were so minded.

Unionist hearts which sank then will be unimpressed by her stance now, where in a shameless bid for the votes she so desperately needs in May’s election, she is ruling out another divisive referendum.

The third female political leader in this country, Ruth Davidson, stands in complete contrast to the turn-with-thewind other two.

Her Tories are unequivocally pro-Union and are adamant that Scots should pay no more in tax than anyone else in the UK.

For voters, the choice is clear.