‘This changes everything’: how Brexit altered Scotland’s political landscape

T he decision to quit the EU bolstered support for Scottish independence , which a decade after the Brexit referendum is at near record levels, according to Scottish Labour’s former leader Kezia Dugdale. Dugdale said the Brexit vote “creates a frame around fairness” for many in Scotland because, unlike England, Scottish voters comprehensively backed remain in 2016, by 62% to 38%, yet found their country taken out of Europe. She also believed the UK government’s embrace of a “hard Brexit” swayed many Scots who had been undecided about Scottish independence when a referendum was held on the issue in 2014. Support for independence currently stands at about 50%, reaching 55% in some polls. Dugdale recalled feeling “utterly devastated” when the leave result was confirmed early on 24 June 2016. That morning, she spoke privately to the then first minister, Nicola Sturgeon , telling her: “This changes everything.” She said many Scots felt they “faced an immediate binary choice of an independent Scotland in Europe or a Boris Johnson-led Brexit Britain”, and that sense of betrayal changed the landscape of Scottish politics . Kezia Dugdale says she felt utterly devastated by the vote to leave the EU. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian “I think it sustained support for independence, which otherwise would have fallen back,” she said. Ruth Davidson, who was the Scottish Conservative leader in 2016 and championed the remain campaign, was shocked by the leave result. …