Bill on second independence vote may only be weeks away

NICOLA Sturgeon is set to announce her plan to legislate for a second independence referendum within weeks.

The First Minister is expected to use her September programme for government to reveal that civil servants have drafted a Bill for another gruelling contest.

She is not likely to unveil a timetable for the referendum or formally list the Bill in her 2016-17 programme – but will insist she has the right to lodge it as the Brexit process becomes clear.

Tory leader Ruth Davidson yesterday said the country needs a ‘government in charge, not a permanent campaign for independence’.

She added: ‘Scotland has had enough of referenda for one lifetime.’

Speaking at a press conference in her official Edinburgh residence, Bute House, Miss Sturgeon repeated her threat to hold a second referendum – despite promising the 2014 result would stand for a ‘generation’.

‘I said the morning after the [EU] referendum that we would pursue all options, including the option of independence, and that remains the case,’ she said.

‘If it turns out simply not to be possible to protect Scotland’s interest through the UK, it must be open to the Scottish people to consider afresh, and in this very different context, the question of independence.’

Miss Sturgeon added that another independence referendum remains ‘highly likely’, but would not say when it might take place.

‘I’m not going to set a timeframe right now when the time-frame for the work around Article 50 at the UK end is so uncertain,’ she said. Asked about the forthcoming programme for government, she refused to deny that a draft Bill on a second referendum will be mentioned.

However, any legally binding contest at some point in the future would have to be sanctioned by Westminster, as the constitution remains a reserved issue.

In June’s EU referendum, 62 per cent of Scots voted to Remain – with a majority in all 32 council areas.

Within minutes of the overall Brexit result, Miss Sturgeon said a second vote on Scottish independence was back ‘on the table’ – less than two years since more than two million Scots rejected separation.

Polls have suggested there is now a slim majority in favour of independence, although nowhere near the 60 per cent figure that SNP strategists are aiming for.

In a speech in Edinburgh yesterday, Miss Davidson called on the First Minister to abandon her drive for a second referendum.

‘A constitutional war with Westminster is a far easier story to tell than trying to defend the indefensible Named Person scheme, or the record number of Scottish students denied a university space, or the failure to recruit enough GPs,’ she said.

‘People didn’t vote for a government so it could spend its days dreaming up green ink letters to send to Whitehall, nor to work up ways to reheat an independence referendum whose result it promised to respect.’

She added: ‘I say to Nicola Sturgeon, we had the vote on independence two years ago. You promised to respect the result. Now show some leadership and let us all get on with our lives.

‘For far too long, Scotland has been on pause while this Scottish Government plots its next political campaign.’

Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: ‘The Conservatives have plunged us into Brexit but the SNP want to make it worse by wrenching us from the UK.

‘The answer to the impending chaos of Brexit is not more chaos with independence.’