Kezia Dugdale calls for referendum on final Brexit deal

Kezia Dugdale - image credit: Jonathan Ellenor

Kezia Dugdale has called for the UK to be allowed a referendum on the terms of the final Brexit deal, while blasting UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to the EU referendum.

Warning that Brexit will make the UK “economically weaker and more isolated”, the former Labour leader used her column in the Daily Record to argue the UK should accept continued free movement of people in return for full tariff-free access to the free market.

She also said he blamed Jeremy Corbyn for Brexit, saying he had failed to “use the power of his popular appeal to convince traditional Labour voters to see that Europe creates more good than harm”.

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Dugdale said: “I have long believed that Labour should be making a full-hearted, passionate case to retain full tariff-free access to the single market – the equivalent of membership. And we should accept all the conditions that come with that, including the free movement of labour.

“The likelihood of that happening is disappearing by the day – but we should still try. It’s better to try and fail, than to fail to try.

“And should we fail, 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. Ireland wouldn’t think twice about doing this.”

The Labour leadership has faced criticism after attempts to give members a vote on Brexit were blocked at the party’s conference in Brighton.

Dugdale wrote: “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.”