Dugdale calls on SNP to ditch indy push
It comes as Nicola Sturgeon prepares to launch her long-awaited Summer independence push tomorrow. The First Minister will unveil a new campaign in Stirling to target wavering Scots who considered backing independence in 2014, but eventually voted to stay in the UK.The Labour leader unveiled her own "alternative programme for Government in Edinburgh as MSPs prepare to return to Holyrood next week for the 2016/17 session of Parliament after their Summer break.Sweeping education reforms are at the heart of the Labour plans, along with bill to ban fracking and scrap controversial laws to crack down on sectarian singing at football. Ms Dugdale said that after the vote for the UK to leave the European Union, it is "absolutely right that protecting Scotland's interests in Europe should be one of the First Minister's priorities".But she warned this cannot be done "at the expense of everything else our Scottish Government is responsible for".She added: "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."That is why today we have published Labour's alternative programme for government. A series of bills that we believe the SNP should include in their upcoming legislative plan."As I said repeatedly during the election campaign, education is Labour's priority. Investing in the next generation so that they are prepared for the jobs that will drive the Scottish economy in the future. That is why an Education Bill leads this programme."Ms Sturgeon will set out her programme for Government for the year ahead at the Scottish Parliament next Tuesday.But she has warned that a second independence vote is now "highly likely" after the Brexit vote, which saw 62% of Scots vote to stay in the EU.The First Minister won the cross-party support earlier this year of the opposition at Holyrood, apart from the Tories, to seek a new deal with Brussels which would secure Scotland's relationship with the EU.But Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie says he now regrets offering his support because Ms Sturgeon has only used this to pursue her independence agenda.He said: "Nicola Sturgeon has broken the Scottish cross party consensus that was built after the Brexit result just two months ago. "When my Scottish Parliament colleagues and I cast our votes at the end of a special parliamentary sitting in favour of exploring the options we were reassured by the First Minister that the motion was, “emphatically not”, about independence. "But, from that moment on, she has talked about little else, betraying those words she uttered in Parliament and consigning the consensus to the dustbin."