Reckless threats are vandalising the economy, Sturgeon is told
NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of ‘economic vandalism’ after she stepped up threats to break up Britain in a second referendum.
The First Minister yesterday claimed she has a ‘cast iron mandate’ to call another divisive vote on Scottish independence – and said it would be Theresa May’s fault if she did so.
Miss Sturgeon also said that a referendum would not only be ‘legitimate’ but ‘almost necessary’ if Scotland is not given a separate deal when the UK leaves the EU.
Since the Brexit vote last year the SNP leader has repeatedly claimed a second vote is ‘highly likely’. Despite warnings from the Royal Bank of Scotland over the ‘adverse’ impact on business and a slump in sterling this week caused by the continued threats, Miss Sturgeon has stepped up her bid to break up the UK.
Scottish Labour Westminster spokesman Ian Murray said: ‘This latest threat from Nicola Sturgeon is irresponsible economic vandalism. The SNP is obsessed with seeking to divide our country, rather than fixing the problems in our hospitals and schools.’
In a speech at the David Hume Institute in Edinburgh last night Miss Sturgeon said the UK Government ‘still has an opportunity’ to deliver a bespoke Brexit deal that would see Scotland remaining in the single market, even if the rest of the UK is outside. And she claimed the UK Government is looking to ‘claw back ground’ on areas such as farming and fishing when the powers are repatriated from Brussels, which she said would be a ‘gross betrayal’.
But Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said Mrs May had made clear she had no such intention, adding: ‘This hyperbole from the First Minister takes synthetic grievance to a whole new level. Frankly, she sounds shrill.’
Writing in a national newspaper, Miss Sturgeon also said a potential second vote had been in her party’s manifesto and calling one would be due to the ‘sheer intransigence of the UK Government’.