Scotland’s future? That’s up to me to decide, says Nicola
NICOLA Sturgeon is facing growing calls to come clean on her plans for a second independence vote, after claiming her ‘gut instinct’ would dictate the date.
The First Minister has refused to rule out putting a mandate for a referendum in her 2016 Holyrood manifesto.
She insisted she would defy demands from her party, which has more than quadrupled in size since last year’s defeat, for an early date.
But rather than live up to her previous promise it would be a once-in-a-generation event, she boasted she alone would decide when Scotland was ready.
On a visit to a children’s pottery workshop in Glasgow, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I think I will know in my gut whether it is the right thing or wrong thing to do, and that will be down to not what the SNP wants or the SNP thinks is right, but what I think is right for Scotland and what I think the people of Scotland want.’
She has ruled out an SNP General Election landslide in Scotland providing a mandate for another referendum, but has said the UK voting to leave the EU while Scots vote to stay in would.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said that the General Election campaign in Scotland had ‘echoes’ of the referendum. She claimed people were stopping her in the street to voice their concern about another divisive separation campaign.
Other opposition l eaders warned the First Minister it was not fair to leave the country guessing.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Kezia Dugdale said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon just needs to be straight with the Scottish people about her plan f or another referendum.
‘It’s clear the First Minister’s gut is telling her to put another referendum in the SNP’s manifesto next year. It’s about time she let the people of Scotland know that.
‘Scots were promised during the referendum that it was a once-in-a-generation thing, but the SNP are going back on their word already. It’s clear the SNP are getting ready to claim the election in May will give them a mandate to call another referendum.
‘A vote for the SNP will put Scotland on the road to another divisive referendum. Only Labour will focus on giving working class families a better chance in life. The only way to get a Labour government is to vote for Labour.’
Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: ‘The future of our country is hanging on the judgment of Nicola Sturgeon’s gut. This was the gut that saw a second oil boom just before the oil price crisis; the gut that recommends full fiscal autonomy even though the Institute for Fiscal Studies says it will blow a massive financial hole in the public finances; and the gut
‘It will be down to what I think’ ‘She just needs to be straight’
that believes borrowing billions will cut debt.
‘Even Nicola Sturgeon’s gut should remember Nicola Sturgeon’s mouth said there would not be another referendum for a lifetime. Instead of being all mysterious, she should rule out another referendum now.
‘This latest statement takes one member, one vote to the extreme. If Nicola Sturgeon and Nicola Sturgeon alone knows when the Nationalists will put forward a second referendum, Nicola Sturgeon should tell us now when it will be.’