Kezia Dugdale has branded the Tories “Scotland’s Brexit party” as she launched an attack on leader Ruth Davidson.
The Scottish Labour leader blasted Ms Davidson for supporting a UK Government that had sold “a bunch of lies” in the run-up to June’s referendum on European Union (EU) membership.
Ms Dugdale accused Ms Davidson’s party of taking the country down a path that could lead to “years of instability”.
She also challenged the SNP to “focus on the job” rather than the constitution as she set out her party’s alternative programme for government.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is due to reveal her legislative plans for the coming year when MSPs return to Holyrood next week.
Speaking at a press conference in Edinburgh, Ms Dugdale said Labour would offer “strong progressive opposition” over the next five years.
She said: “We are the only party that wants what the Scottish people want – a strong Scotland inside the UK and maintaining our relationship with Europe.
“Ruth Davidson cannot escape the fact that her party is taking us headlong on a path out of the EU.
“We saw that clearly from yesterday’s political cabinet at Chequers.
“A path that, at worst, will weaken our economy and, at best, will create years of instability.
We are the only party that wants what the Scottish people want – a strong Scotland inside the UK and maintaining our relationship with Europe.
“Senior members of the Government she supports are the same people who eight weeks ago Ruth Davidson said were lying to the British public.”
She highlighted Ms Davidson’s criticism of her UK party colleagues during the referendum debate, including accusing Brexit campaigner and new Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom of telling a “blatant untruth” and blasting now Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for “selling a lie”.
Ms Dugdale added: “How can we believe a word the Tories say when just eight weeks ago they sold the British public a proposition that even their Scottish leader accepts was a bunch of lies?
“No amount of comic tweets is going to disguise the fact that the Tories are Scotland’s Brexit party.
“Ruth Davidson may have decided to run for opposition rather than government during the election but soon she’s going to discover that real opposition has to run to more than 140 characters.”
Turning to the SNP, Ms Dugdale said that while Brexit had changed politics, protecting Scotland’s interests in Europe should not be prioritised by the Scottish Government at the expense of other responsibilities.
Ms Dugdale said: “After years of constitutional debate, it is time for the First Minister and all Scottish Government ministers to focus on the job of reforming and investing in our public services, and getting people back to work.”
Labour’s proposals include an Education Bill, which would set up a Fair Start Fund to help youngsters in deprived areas, paid for by increasing income tax on the highest earners, and would also establish a breakfast club for youngsters in every primary school.
The party also wants to ban fracking, introduce bus regulation, scrap the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act and introduce a Work and Trade Unions Bill to set up a new skills agency and recognise the “positive contribution of trade unions in the economy”.
Other proposed legislation includes a Health and Social Care Bill to ensure every care worker is paid the living wage and abolish zero-hours contracts in the sector.
“A really difficult time for the Labour Party”
In a question-and-answer session, Ms Dugdale was asked why she thought her name had been jeered by some party members during a hustings between UK Labour leadership contenders Owen Smith and Jeremy Corbyn in Glasgow last week.
She said: “This is a really difficult time for the Labour Party, there’s no question of that.
“I’ve said in the last couple of weeks that it has been an ugly mess and at times I would like it to be very much different than it is just now.
“But the way we turn things round is to focus on the job in hand and the job we were elected to do.
“Over half a million people in this country sent Labour MSPs back to the Scottish Parliament to focus on stopping cuts to public services and investing in Scotland’s future, and that’s what every single Labour MSP is going to do when they return to parliament next week.”
The comments were seized on by Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw, who said: “Kezia Dugdale hit the mark on at least one point today by admitting that her party are a complete mess.
“Her party is all over the place on Scotland’s place in the Union, with both her deputy leader and her preferred candidate for UK leader saying they won’t oppose a second toxic referendum.
“She also confirmed today that if ever Scottish Labour got into power, every single taxpayer would be made to pay more in tax than people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“The truth is that Kezia Dugdale isn’t able to control the chaos we’re seeing in Labour right now.
“But with policies that would force even low-income earners to pay more in tax, it seems she’s determined to make things even worse.”
