Gove: No Scots poll ... for now
He says the focus must be on recovery – but fails to rule out another referendum
MICHAEL Gove yesterday refused to rule out a second independence referendum in Scotland while saying it should not happen now.
In an interview the Cabinet Office minister, who is leading the Government’s battle to preserve the Union, appeared to soften his stance.
Asked by ITV whether he was saying never to a second referendum, or just not now, he replied: ‘Well, not now.’
Pressed again on whether he was ruling it out for ever, he replied: ‘No. Obviously it is the case that there is an understandable debate that people can have in the future.
‘But for the moment, we absolutely need to concentrate on recovery.’
His comments came after the SNP won a fourth term in the Scottish parliament elections. The party fell just short of a majority which would have increased the pressure for another referendum.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted however that she planned to deliver independence. She said any attempt by Westminster to block a vote would be ‘saying the UK is no longer a union based on consent’.
Mr Gove claimed that the SNP’s failure to win an overall majority in Thursday’s Holyrood elections meant Scots were not ‘agitating’ for another poll.
On the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show he said ‘ a majority of people who voted in the constituencies voted for parties that were opposed to a referendum’. But he ducked questions on whether the Government would use the courts to block plans to hold another poll. He also said it was significant that Miss Sturgeon failed to secure a majority as Alex Salmond did in 2011.
Also speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, the SNP leader said: ‘I have just won a landslide election and another five-year term as First Minister. I have got the energy, the appetite, to get on with the job. Firstly, to get us through Covid – that is my priority – and then I hope to lead Scotland to independence.’
She said Scots had voted overwhelmingly for her party, based on a manifesto commitment to ‘give the people of Scotland the opportunity to choose our own future in a referendum’.
She added: ‘The fact that we are sitting here having a debate about whether or not that outcome is going to be respected says a lot about the lack of respect for Scottish democracy that this UK Government has demonstrated for quite some time now. The people of Scotland have voted for the SNP, on the strength of offering, when the time is right, an independence referendum.’
On Saturday, Mr Johnson wrote to the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland asking them to attend a Covid recovery summit to ‘address our shared challenges’.
The meeting will be an attempt to bind Miss Sturgeon to dealing with the fallout from the pandemic rather than concentrating on an independence referendum.
After a telephone call with the Prime Minister last night, she agreed to focus on the recovery from Covid but repeated her calls for another referendum.
Officials said: ‘The First Minister also reiterated her intention to ensure that the people of Scotland can choose our own future when the crisis is over, and made clear that the question of a referendum is now a matter of when – not if.’
Downing Street’s account of the conversation between Mr Johnson and Miss Sturgeon did not mention a referendum. The SNP secured 64 seats – one more than in 2016 but still one short of a majority.
However its improved performance, and a record result for the Scottish Greens, who won eight MSPs, means there is a pro-independence majority at Holyrood.
Both the SNP and the Green election manifestos included a commitment to holding another referendum in the next five years.
Miss Sturgeon has already said she wants such a vote to take place before the end of 2023 – assuming the pandemic has passed.
The SNP intends to press ahead with legislation for a referendum with a bill drawn up after the summer.
Yesterday, a survey for the pro-UK group Scotland in Union found 37 per cent wanted a referendum within the First Minister’s preferred timetable – by the end of 2023.
Fifty-two per cent were against having another referendum by then, with 10 per cent saying they did not know. Scotland in Union said the poll showed 58 per cent of Scots wanted to stay in the UK, with 42 per cent favouring independence.
Chief executive Pamela Nash said: ‘The very last thing we need right now is more division in our society.’
‘Choose our own future’