Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has said her members' views on Scottish independence are "irrelevant" to her efforts to create a fairer and more equal society.
Ms Dugdale said there is a home for nationalists in the Labour Party, despite previously arguing that Scotland would be billions of pounds worse off under independence with implications for inequality.
She has said she will not shut down internal party debate on support for independence, after former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont called for a free vote within the party.
Speaking during a visit to Barnardo's Cymru in Cardiff, she said: "I spent two-and-a-half years campaigning for a No vote and I'm glad the country voted No.
"But what I am calling for now is that instead of talking about the issues of the past we focus on the future, such as tackling education.
"There's no denying that 30% of Labour voters voted Yes in the referendum.
"So, I want to lead a Labour Party that is comfortable with people who voted Yes and No backing our values of creating a fair and more equal society for everyone.
"Where you sit with the constitutional question is irrelevant.
"What matters is whether you believe in tackling things like child poverty - then there's a home for you in the Labour Party."
Ms Dugdale rebuffed suggestions that it could be confusing for voters with her party in Scotland having different views than their counterparts in England.
"You can call it confusing, I call it devolution," she added.
"Across the UK we can have different solutions to different questions. First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones has done that several times for Wales - and put Wales first.
"I'm saying as the leader of the Scottish Labour Party I'm going to do exactly that - so what is in the best interests of Scotland."
Speaking in Holyrood shortly before the independence referendum, Ms Dugdale said: "Scotland would be £4.5 billion worse off under independence, having to find more than £4 billion just to stand still... but it is standing still on the big issues such as educational inequality."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel