LEADERS AT WAR OVER REFERENDUM
Clash as Sturgeon claims Dugdale backed new vote
A VICIOUS row erupted between Scotland’s political leaders last night after Nicola Sturgeon claimed Kezia Dugdale told her she would not oppose an independence referendum following Brexit.
The SNP leader made the bombshell claim about the private conversation with her Scottish Labour counterpart during an explosive live television debate only 33 hours before the polls open.
But Miss Dugdale hit back by claiming that Miss Sturgeon had told a ‘categoric lie’ to the people of Scotland.
The First Minister’s bombshell claim comes at the end of a campaign which has been dominated by her demand for a second independence referendum – with Labour insisting it will stand up for the Union.
Their exchanges were during last night’s final television debate ahead of the General Election, as the Scottish leaders clashed on STV.
Much of the event was taken up with Miss Sturgeon’s renewed push for another divisive vote on Scotland’s future, with each of the three pro-Union leaders accusing the First Minister of being obsessed with her plan to tear Scotland out of the UK. But it was the Nationalist leader who landed the strongest blow as she revealed details of her private conversation with Miss Dugdale following last year’s EU referendum.
After coming under fire from the Scottish Labour leader over her desire for another poll on separation, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘You and I spoke the day after the EU referendum and you told me then you thought the change caused by Brexit meant you thought Labour should stop opposing a referendum.’
Following the remarkable claim, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said: ‘Did you just tell people you had a private conversation with Kez Dugdale last June where she said she was going to drop Labour’s opposition to independence?’
Miss Sturgeon replied: ‘She said she thought that Brexit changed everything and that she didn’t think Labour could any longer go on opposing a second independence referendum. She was entitled to change her mind, I accept that but what I don’t think any politician is entitled to do is to deny people in Scotland a choice about their own future.’
Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman Adam Tomkins said: ‘This is a bombshell revelation which holes Scottish Labour’s entire campaign below the waterline.’
During the debate, Miss Dugdale said the idea she would do anything other than protect Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom was an ‘absolute joke’. After the debate ended, she said: ‘Any suggestion that I ever said to Nicola Sturgeon that I’d change Labour’s position on Indyref 2 is a categoric lie.’
A Scottish Labour spokesman said: ‘It is nothing but a final act of desperation from an SNP leader who knows the public has turned against her.’
‘The suggestion is a categoric lie’