Sturgeon in referendum climbdown

NICOLA Sturgeon was forced to shelve plans for a second referendum on Scottish independence yesterday after admitting voters do not want one.

In a humiliating climbdown, the SNP leader said she was going to ‘reset’ the timetable for a second referendum, which she had wanted to hold in the run-up to Brexit.

Scotland’s First Minister insisted she would still press ahead with a vote – and said it was ‘likely’ one would be held before 2021 – but had been ‘reflecting’ on her plans in the wake of the election, in which her party lost 21 seats.

While insisting that the SNP’s mandate for a second referendum was ‘beyond question’, she acknowledged that many voters felt it was ‘too soon’ to hold another vote, less than three years after the last.

She said she would now focus on trying to force Prime Minister Theresa May to compromise on Brexit and keep the UK in the EU’s single market.