SCOTS should not believe the forecasts that a win for Remain in the European Union referendum is a foregone conclusion, says Kezia Dugdale.
Instead the Labour leader urged campaigners to make the positive case for EU membership to win over wavering voters and those who have yet to engage in the process.
Read more: Pro EU campaigners hit streets of Glasgow
Ms Dudgale launched the Labour In campaign just one week after the party’s disappointing performance in the Scottish election.
She kicked off the campaign in Scotland while activists in Glasgow took their ‘vote Remain’ message on a tour of the city’s 15 subway stations.
Ms Dugdale warned voters not to take the opinion polls as fact and said the peace and prosperity the EU has helped create should be celebrated and used to convince people during the campaign to vote to remain on June 23.
Ms Dugdale said: “The last few weeks have taught us again not to read polls as prediction, as if we needed another lesson after the general election.
“There’s no such thing as a guaranteed win in politics. There can be no complacency when the future of our nation is at stake.”
Read more: Glasgow's economy could suffer if the UK opts to leave the EU, new report claims
The Labour leader said that for decades people have been able to take the unity, cooperation workers’ rights and economic benefits of the EU for granted.
She added: “From Scandinavia to the Aegean. From the Balearic Islands to the Arctic Circle. From the Carpathians to the Highlands.
“We cooperate, sharing freedom, together. It’s a continent whose history is written in conflict and chaos but is now defined by peace and prosperity.
Meanwhile the Leave campaign said the EU was “protectionist” and “damaging”, working for the privileged few but costly for ordinary workers.
The Leave campaign, however, said that the EU pushes up costs for ordinary people.
Read more: Reject project fear and focus on positives of Europe says Alex Salmond
Tom Harris, director of Scottish Vote Leave, said trade tariffs were “grotesque” – giving as an example Germany earning more than all Africa from coffee, despite Germany not growing a single coffee bean.
The former Glasgow Labour MP said: “This protectionism forces up food costs for families in Scotland, while damaging developing economies across the world.
Families also come under pressure due to uncontrolled immigration from the EU which forces down the wages of the poorest Scots while pushing up rents.
“EU membership works well enough for the privileged, wealthy few, but it works directly against the interests of ordinary working people and their communities.”
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