FORMER Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has backed a referendum on the final Brexit deal six months after saying “people are sick and tired of divisive referendums”.
The Lothian MSP said people should be given a final say if the terms of leaving the European Union do not include single market membership.
Writing in a Scottish daily newspaper, Dugdale took issue with Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the Brexit issue and urged her party to back a second EU vote.
“The biggest test for Labour has yet to come because leaving the EU without access to the single market is not what I believe the country voted for.
“If that happens then Labour must insist that the final Brexit deal goes to another public vote to be ratified or rejected,” she said.
But writing in Labour List in March this year as she attacked the prospect of a second independence referendum: “The future of our country has never been more at risk, and never been more in need of politicians who can bring us together, rather than exploiting divisions for political ends,” she said.
“People are sick and tired of divisive referendums, and sick and tired of the all or nothing approach to politics.”
Dugdale, who quit as leader last month, said Labour should be fighting harder to keep the UK in the trading bloc, adding she was “embarrassed by the complete paucity of my party to say and do the right thing”.
Writing in her newspaper column, she attacked Jeremy Corbyn over his “lazy and lacklustre” campaign to keep Britain in the EU.
Referring to his 2015 leadership slogan, she made a direct swipe at the UK Labour leader, asking: “Whatever happened to straight talking honest politics?”
She added: “I’m fraught with anger and frustration about Brexit. I blame David Cameron for calling a referendum no one wanted in the first place but I also blame my party, the Labour Party, for a totally lazy and lacklustre Remain campaign that got us here.
“And yes, I blame Jeremy Corbyn too for failing to use the power of his popular appeal to convince traditional Labour voters to see that Europe creates more good than harm.
“Not only that, now the country has spoken, I’m embarrassed by the complete paucity of my party to say and do the right thing no matter how hard or unpopular that might be at first.”
Dugdale’s comments come as Labour divisions over Europe erupted at the party’s conference in Brighton.
Party bosses opted not to push the issue of Brexit to a vote on the conference floor angering pro-EU members.
They want Corbyn to commit Labour to keeping the UK permanently in the European single market and customs union after the UK leaves the EU.
But the UK party is reluctant to take a decisive stance for fear of alienating supporters who voted to Leave the EU.
Holding some of the most pro- Brexit and pro-EU constituencies poses a difficult strategic dilemma for the party.
But yesterday the two candidates vying to replace Dugdale rejected her call.
Anas Sarwar and Richard Leonard made their views on the issue clear at a campaign hustings at the party’s annual UK conference in Brighton.
Leonard also accused the former Scottish Labour leader of trying to blame Corbyn for Brexit instead of Cameron.
Leonard told party members: “I am not persuaded we need a second referendum. The column by Kezia I read today was interesting. I think she is trying to pin the blame on the wrong guy [Jeremy Corbyn].
“The person who is responsible for the mess that we are in over the EU is David Cameron.”
He added later: “I think it is premature to start calling for it [a second vote] now.”
Sarwar also rejected a further referendum, saying the country had no appetite for one.
He defended the former leader’s right to speak on the issue, however, as “she is proud European, and she has always been passionate about the EU”.
There have been growing calls for a second referendum on EU membership, a demand first put forward by the LibDems.
In an interview with the New Statesman last week Nicola Sturgeon said the calls “may become very hard to resist” as she suggested voters did not have full details of what was entailed by leaving the EU, making the case stronger for a new vote.
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