Ruth Davidson criticises Nicola Sturgeon over Kezia Dugdale referendum claim

RUTH DAVIDSON has branded Nicola Sturgeon a “clype” for claiming the Scottish Labour leader told her following the Brexit vote that “Labour should stop opposing a referendum” on Scottish independence.

The Scottish Conservative leader said the First Minister had resorted to “scoring cheap political points” in revealing the private conversation, which Kezia Dugdale has denied, in a television debate.

Speaking at campaign rally in Edinburgh, Ms Davidson said: “I’ve thought an awful lot of things about Nicola Sturgeon in the past few years but I never thought she was a clype.

“I never thought she was a woman you couldn’t have a private conversation with, but I know now.

“One thing she did tell us was something that we didn’t even need to know, and that was that the Labour Party can’t be trusted on the union.

“We don’t need to hear private conversations to know what’s been said already in public.

“Kezia Dugdale saying that she was quite happy for her MPs and MSPs to vote for independence – on the record saying that Brexit meant that she considered it herself.

“Jeremy Corbyn saying that he was absolutely fine with a second referendum, a couple of weeks later saying that he would open discussions with the Scottish Government about it.”

Questioned on what the intervention says about Ms Sturgeon’s character, Ms Davidson said: “People will make a decision themselves if it talks to character, that if someone will tell a private conversation that happened at a really important time of Scotland’s political history a year later to score a cheap political point, people will make their own mind up.”

Ms Davidson said the First Minister and the SNP are “rattled” as they see the “crumbling” of their influence following the 2015 General Election landslide.

She appealed to voters to back her party to stop a second independence referendum, saying it would allow Scotland to “move on and have a bit of peace”.

Questioned about the claim as he campaigned in Glasgow on the eve of the General Election, Mr Corbyn refused to be drawn, saying: “The priority is the election of a Labour government … I do not see the urgency or the need for an independence referendum.

“What matters is an economy that works for all, protecting our pensioners, investing in our young people and negotiating a Brexit deal that guarantees tariff-free access to the European Union and guarantees the rights of European nationals living in every part of the UK.”

Buoyed by a large and enthusiastic crowd of supporters in Buchanan Street, he took to the stage to deliver one of his final addresses before voters go to the polls.

“In Scotland tomorrow, vote Labour, vote Labour to get Labour MPs elected, vote Labour so those MPs can be part of (a Labour majority), vote Labour so that we can tackle poverty and injustice all over the UK,” he said.