“It couldn’t be clearer than that” was Kezia Dugdale’s assertion tonight on the subject of whether a Labour UK government would block a second independence referendum, during her “Ask The Leader” interview with the BBC’s Glenn Campbell.

She’d insisted explicitly several times that a Jeremy Corbyn administration WOULD block a new indyref, even after being shown a video clip of Corbyn from earlier in the day saying he wouldn’t, and she repeatedly urged readers not to listen to the party’s leader and to instead go and look at the Labour manifesto.

So we did.

This is a link to the Scottish Labour manifesto and this is the UK one. Below is the entire text of the relevant section in each one (Scottish Labour on the left, UK Labour on the right.)

Neither mentions a block. (The word “block” doesn’t appear in the UK manifesto at all and only once in the Scottish one, in the phrase “block grant”.) Both say that Labour “opposes” a second referendum, that they don’t want one and that they don’t think one is necessary, but none of that is the same as saying they’ll block one.

Contrary to Dugdale’s insistence, it could be a LOT clearer than that. It could say “We will refuse a Section 30 order. We will categorically not grant Holyrood the right to hold a second referendum.” But it doesn’t say that, and Dugdale wouldn’t say that either.

(She was asked again later in the show and frantically dodged the question again.)

As far as we can tell, the actual position hasn’t changed since a Labour spokesman gave it to the press in March of this year in order to “clarify” some comments by Corbyn the previous day:

(Our emphases.) And Labour were true to their word on that. They DID oppose it in the Scottish Parliament, but they lost the vote, and their own stated position is that that now means a second referendum will go ahead should Labour form the next UK government. Nothing in the manifesto contradicts that March statement.

Which is nice, but someone should probably explain it to Kezia Dugdale. We advise using really short words and perhaps holding something shiny to keep her attention.