THE shadow Scottish secretary says there should be a People’s Vote style ballot after indyref2 to let the electorate decide if they got “what [they] were promised”.
Ian Murray, Scotland’s last remaining Labour MP, pushed hard for a confirmatory vote after Brexit as negotiations struggled along.
Many party members and analysts believe Labour’s 2019 policy, vowing to hold a confirmatory vote on Brexit, was one of the key reasons for its disastrous General Election result.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Tony Blair Institute yesterday, Murray discussed increasing support for independence and how Labour can respond to it.
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There have now been 20 consecutive polls showing support for independence is the majority position in Scotland.
The Edinburgh South MP argued independence and a new referendum on Union membership are not “inevitable”.
He said the current Tory Government is fuelling calls for independence and the “first thing” to do is to “have a credible alternative government at Westminster”.
Giving the example of Labour’s work on the devolution settlement during the 1990s, he said Labour has “proved we can do this”.
Murray went out to set out his argument for a confirmatory vote following a Scottish independence referendum.
“I thought that a confirmatory referendum on the [Brexit] deal that had been done would have been a way to say to the public, is this what you were promised by all these disingenuous politicians and is this what we’ve been delivered?
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“I fundamentally believe that because we don’t have an answer to the big questions on the fundamental principles.
“I think that if people get those answers, then they should be entitled to decide whether or not that was what they were promised to start.”
The current Scottish Labour position is that a new referendum should not be held until at least 2026.
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