The Brexit vote in 2016 was one of the biggest shocks to the political system the UK has ever seen.
Sensing an opportunity to kick the political class, voters across all backgrounds voted Leave to send a message that will reverberate for decades.
However, the official pro-Brexit campaign has not aged well. We were told that Brexit would result in £350m a week extra for the NHS. We were told we could trade freely with the rest of the European Union. These were blatant lies.
Against this backdrop, the campaign for a second referendum on the deal negotiated between the UK Government and our European partners is more persuasive than ever.
The package that will eventually be put in front of the nation will bear almost no resemblance to the rose-tinted vision presented during the referendum campaign, and so another referendum is essential.
However, a second referendum needs better advocates than the Liberal Democrats and a handful of Blairite politicians. It needs the full support of the Labour leadership and everyone who considers themselves progressive. This must include the SNP, and Nicola Sturgeon should be in the forefront of the campaign for a second EU referendum.
Sturgeon does not have to give up on another independence referendum - far from it - if she seizes the moment to lead a cross-party campaign for a second EU referendum, as this paper would like to see. Helping save Scotland from the catastrophe of Brexit, and wishing to change the nation's constitutional future within the UK are not mutually exclusive.
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