KEZIA Dugdale is under pressure over her account of the private conversation with the First Minister in which she allegedly softened her opposition to a second independence referendum.
The Scottish Labour leader told journalists yesterday the disputed chat with Nicola Sturgeon had been in a “conference call”, but she backtracked two minutes later.
Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman Adam Tomkins said: "It seems Labour are finding it very difficult to get their story straight on this."
In a television debate this week, Ms Sturgeon claimed Ms Dugdale had told her the Brexit vote in June 2016 had “changed everything” and “Labour should stop opposing a referendum”.
The allegation was explosive as Labour has made opposition to a second plebiscite a key plank of its general election campaign.
Ms Dugdale did not deny the specific claim on stage, but later tweeted: “Any suggestion that I ever said to Sturgeon that I'd change Labour's position on #indyref2 is a categoric lie + shows how desperate she is.”
Speaking to reporters in Edinburgh, where she was showing supporting for candidate Ian Murray, Ms Dugdale said she was at her party’s headquarters in Glasgow when the conversation took place on the day after the Brexit vote.
Asked if she could provide exact details of the conversation, the Lothians MSP replied: “I’ve told you everything that I could recollect about it. You have got to remember, this is a telephone conference call that took place in the hours after the EU referendum result a year ago.”
On whether she would welcome the publication of civil service notes on the exchange, should such documents exist, Ms Dugdale said:
“I can’t imagine there are, because it’s a private conversation conducted on mobile phones.”
Put to her that she said it had been a ‘conference call’, she said: “No, a mobile phone.”
Put to her again that she had used the phrase ‘conference call’, she said: “I don’t think I did.”
Pressed a third time that she had used this form of words, she said: “No.”
The press briefing, in which four journalists were present, was recorded.
Tomkins said: “This is a subject of critical importance, yet Kezia Dugdale can't even remember if she opposes a second referendum or not. It again goes to show Labour simply cannot be trusted on the union."
A Scottish Labour spokesman said: “It was a mobile phone conversation.”
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