Scottish labour leadership hopeful Monica Lennon has said it would be "foolish and undemocratic" to ignore calls for a second independence referendum.
The MSP, who is vying for the leadership of the party in Scotland with Anas Sarwar, urged her colleagues not to "hide behind Boris Johnson" and come up with a platform to promote during any debate on a breakaway Scotland.
Ms Lennon warned that voters would continue to desert Scottish Labour - currently the third pary at Holyrood - unless it had a something to offer them in terms of the country's constitution al future.
Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, she said: "If people in Scotland, through the ballot box, express that they want a referendum, it would be foolish and undemocratic to ignore that."
However, the 40-year-old does not belive that now is the time to have a ballto on the country's future, and does not want to see one this year.
Ms Lennon is running against Anas Sarwar
The Scottish elections in May are expected to return a pro-independence majority of MSPs - with either the SNP holding all the cards outright, or through a balance of their MSPs and those of the Scottish Green Party - and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to hold a second independence referendum.
Ms Lennon said: “It would be irresponsible for anyone to race ahead and force a referendum to happen this year while we’re still in the middle of a pandemic.
“But for those people who want to hide behind Boris Johnson [by rejecting one], then I would say that would be a disaster for Scottish Labour and actually that itself puts the union at risk. I believe the biggest threat to the union is Boris Johnson and the Tories.”
Anas Sarwar, the leadership frontrunner, has rejected calls to back a new referendum, but Lennon said pro-independence parties would have a mandate to hold a fresh vote if they won a majority of Holyrood seats in May’s Scottish elections.
Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to hold a second independence referendum
Ms Lennon said it was time for Labour to adopt a position on the consitutional debate which would appeal to voters.
“We’re sounding very grumpy about the constitution,” she said. “We’re telling people it’s irresponsible to be talking about it. But they’re going to talk about it anyway; they’re going to talk about it without us. I’m standing to lead the party because I’m sick and tired of Scottish Labour being left behind, talking to ourselves.”
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“Because Scottish Labour haven’t been showing that there’s a better way, then people are being asked to respond to opinion polls that give them a binary choice between independence, which involves jumping off a cliff, or staying with what we have, which a majority of people don’t like".
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