This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34301969

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Johann Lamont backs Labour 'free vote' on independence Kezia Dugdale would allow indyref 'free vote'
(about 17 hours later)
Labour should consider having a free vote in any future independence referendum, according the party's former Scottish leader Johann Lamont. Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has said she would not stop MPs and MSPs campaigning for independence if there was another referendum.
Ms Lamont was speaking as part of a series of BBC Scotland interviews to mark the anniversary of the referendum. Ms Dugdale told BBC Scotland she would not "shut down" debate on the issue within Scottish Labour.
The Labour MSP said it was "self-evident" that some people within the Labour movement had accepted that Scotland could be independent. Her comments came after former leader Johann Lamont said Labour should consider having a "free vote" in any future independence referendum.
She said a free vote was a debate the party should have. Ms Dugdale said she had "tremendous respect" for this position.
In the previous interview in the series, Blair Jenkins, the former chief executive of the Yes campaign, appealed to the new Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale to allow members to be allowed to campaign for independence. Labour joined the Tories and the Lib Dems to campaign against independence in the run-up to last year's referendum, which resulted in a "No" vote.
He told last week's Good Morning Scotland programme he thought there would be "very strong pressure" on the party to do that - even if the official position would be against independence. However, the party suffered a massive defeat at the general election in May, when it was reduced to just one MP.
Mr Jenkins said he would prefer Labour to back a Yes vote but "as a minimum position" they should allow prominent people in the party to campaign against its policy as they did in the 1979 devolution referendum. Ms Lamont, who was Scottish Labour leader during the referendum campaign, told BBC Scotland that "on balance" she believed it was right to join the Conservatives in the Better Together campaign.
Ms Lamont was Scottish Labour leader for three years until she resigned soon after the referendum, accusing Westminster colleagues of treating Scotland like a "branch office".
Ballot box
She told Good Morning Scotland: "We know that there were Labour people who supported Yes and we need to understand what that was and have that debate inside the party.
"It'll be for others to decide whether you then make it a free vote. People clearly exercised their vote in the ballot box anyway."
She added: "If that's a debate we should have inside the party, why not? Because what is self-evident is that there were people within the Labour movement more broadly who did accept the argument that Scotland could be an independent country."
Despite saying the idea of a free vote should be debated, Ms Lamont added any decision over independence was "far bigger" than what was voted on in 1979.
Ms Lamont also said that "on balance" she believed Labour was right to join with the Conservatives in the Better Together campaign.
But she said Labour should have had a better resourced and more energetic campaign of its own.But she said Labour should have had a better resourced and more energetic campaign of its own.
In the interview she said she felt "pushed to jump" before she left the role but she refused to point the finger of blame at Ed Miliband or at Margaret Curran, an old friend who was at the time shadow secretary of state for Scotland. The former leader, speaking as part of a series of BBC Scotland interviews to mark the anniversary of the referendum, said it was "self-evident" that some people within the Labour movement had accepted that Scotland could be independent.
The full interview will be broadcast on Sunday's edition of Good Morning Scotland, from 08:00 on BBC Radio Scotland. Responding to the comments on BBC Scotland's Sunday Politics, Ms Dugdale said she did not think a second referendum was "inevitable" and insisted "Yes" supporters could "have a home in the Scottish Labour Party".
She said: "I want people who voted both Yes and No to see that the Labour party is the vehicle for progressive change in this country, which is why I am completely comfortable and, in fact, would encourage people who voted Yes in the past to take a look at our party and see that it has changed."
When asked if Labour's MP and MSPs should be allowed to campaign against party policy, as they did in the 1979 devolution referendum, Ms Dugdale said: "Yes. Many Labour members, in fact almost 30% of Labour party supporters, voted Yes. We know that now from all the evidence and I respect that.
"I'm not going to shut down my party's renewal and debate in my party because people hold a different position on independence."
She added: "If somebody holds that view on the question of independence, I'm not going to try to shut down the debate."
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said: "For the leader of a party supposedly committed to safeguarding Scotland's place within the United Kingdom it beggars belief that Kezia Dugdale should now be giving her support to Labour MSPs and activists who want to campaign for independence.
"As a result of her statement, the position of the Scottish Labour party on this most vital of issues has been plunged into complete confusion and Kezia Dugdale must explain her apparent u-turn immediately."