The former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has said her stance on independence has moved and she can no longer argue for staying in the UK with the same strength she did in the run-up to the 2014 referendum.
Dugdale said she felt Scots would eventually get a second vote on the future of their country’s place in the UK but did not believe a referendum would take place within the next decade.
“I don’t think either the Labour party or the Conservative government will concede a referendum,” the former politician said.
Asked how she would vote if there was another ballot on independence, Dugdale said she would “decide at the time”.
While stressing she was now outside party politics, she said: “If you are presented with a binary choice between an independent Scotland in a progressive Europe or little Boris Brexit Britain, I know where my cards would fall down.
“I also know I couldn’t argue with the same strength for the union that I did in 2014 now.
“That doesn’t mean I’m ready to vote yes; there are big, big questions we need to debate as a country and resolve.
“So I have moved … we have to keep talking about some of these big issues in the country, but not just purely through that yes/no lens.”
Dugdale, who is married to the SNP MSP and Scottish education secretary, Jenny Gilruth, spent eight years as a Labour MSP and led the party in Scotland from 2015-17. She has not been a member of Labour for three years, citing her pro-European politics as the reason for quitting, but said she “desperately” wanted Sir Keir Starmer to win the next general election “because I want the Tories out of office”.
Dugdale, who is the director of the John Smith Centre at the University of Glasgow and a professor of practice in public service at the university, was speaking during an event at the Edinburgh international book festival.
She also spoke about the need for more social housing: “For me we have to build more houses if we have got any hope to eradicate poverty and inequality.”
She backed calls made by the SNP for the Scottish parliament to be given powers over immigration and employment legislation.
