FOLLOWING a brutal general election result in Scotland, key Labour figures have come out in favour of a second independence referendum.
Labour were left with a single MP in Scotland after a surge in support for the SNP wiped out most of the party's parliamentarians.
Now, senior Labour figures have spoken out in favour of another poll on leaving the UK.
Shadow health secretary Monica Lennon spoke in support of bringing the question back to the people of Scotland, though stated that she still did not believe independence was the right option.
Speaking to the Daily Record, she said “People in Scotland have voted in very large numbers for the SNP, including many Labour voters.
“As expected, Nicola Sturgeon is presenting that as an endorsement of her party and will now ask the UK Government to permit a second referendum on independence.
“If Boris Johnson isn’t prepared to grant this request, he should allow the Scottish Parliament to decide.
“The SNP blueprint for independence is flawed and will disappoint many progressive Scots who are fed up with austerity. Nevertheless, the future of Scotland must be decided by the people of Scotland.
“We must look forward as a party and a movement and respond to the challenges that a post-Brexit landscape will bring.”
Lennon's comments follow Alison Evison, president of COSLA and leader of the labour group on Aberdeenshire council, voicing support for a future referendum too.
On Twitter, she said democracy must be “at the core of all we do”.
She said: “Recently, it has become fragile and we must strengthen it again.
“We can strengthen it by enabling the voice of Scotland to be heard through its formal processes and that must mean a referendum on independence.”
She added: “If the people accept a new prospectus for independence, then so be it. That is democracy and, if it happens, Labour should offer its own prospectus for a progressive, socialist, outward-looking and egalitarian independent country.”
Former Scottish Labour minister Malcolm Chisholm also tweeted: “Hope many of those against or undecided (me included) about independence will get behind incontrovertible democratic demand for IndyRef2.
“Hardest of hard Brexits and intolerable Johnson not what many No Voters had in mind in 2014.”
However, Scottish labour leader Richard Leonard has so far been unwilling to change his position.
He said: “The precedent of 2011 into 2014 was you win a successful election at Holyrood because the request lies in the hands of the Scottish Parliament.
"So our argument has been the mandate for a request would be dependent on the outcome of a future Scottish Parliament election.
“There is an agitation for a referendum next year and we will have discussions about that but the view that we have taken up to now is that we wouldn’t support a request for an early referendum.”
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