There’ll be no second vote on independence before 2021, says Davidson
RUTH Davidson yesterday insisted that Theresa May is not going to change her mind about rejecting a second independence referendum – and said she doesn’t expect one before 2021.
The Scottish Conservative leader said the Prime Minister is adamant there should not be another vote a few years after the SNP promised the referendum would be a ‘once in a generation opportunity’.
She also claimed most Scots feel ‘hurt, angry and let down’ by Nicola Sturgeon’s renewed push for a rerun of the 2014 vote, when there was a resounding majority in favour of staying in the UK.
In an interview with the Scottish Daily Mail, Miss Davidson said the issue of a second referendum is a dominant one in the run-up to May’s local elections because of Miss Sturgeon’s demand for a vote as early as autumn 2019.
The SNP leader has claimed that Theresa May’s decision to say ‘now is not the time’ for a referendum is a ‘holding position’, while Alex Salmond has claimed her stance will ‘crumble’.
But Miss Davidson said: ‘Neither of them know Theresa May terribly well if they think she is somebody that changes their mind often. This is the principle of the idea that Scotland was promised that if we had an independence referendum we would respect the result.
‘We were told multiple times – before and after – it would be respected for generations and that a future vote for the SNP wasn’t necessarily a vote for another referendum and they have gone back on all of that.
‘Theresa May’s position is you cannot ask Scots to make a decision on something as big as this when you do not know what either Brexit looks like or what independence looks like. And you should not have a referendum when the majority of Scots don’t want one.
‘It is not about manoeuvring, it is not about talking about a time or a date: these are principled positions.’
Pressed on whether she is confident there will be no referendum before the Holyrood elections in 2021, she said: ‘I just don’t see it. I just don’t see people wanting to go back there.’
Miss Sturgeon has indicated that she will outline ‘next steps’ on securing another referendum after the Easter recess.
Some SNP sources have indicated options could include holding a ‘consultative’ referendum without UK Government consent or introducing a Referendum Bill at Holyrood without securing a ‘section 30 order’ first.
But Miss Davidson said any attempt to force through a Referendum Bill without Westminster’s consent would be ‘overriding the laws of the land’.
She added: ‘If they do that, then it will show them for exactly what they are – they disregard everything in Scotland apart from their obsession with separation.’
After more than doubling the number of MSPs she has in last year’s Holyrood election, Miss Davidson is confident of securing her party’s best performance in a local election since devolution. That would mean increasing the number of Tory councillors from the 115 elected in 2012 to the record of 143 in 2007.
Miss Davidson also said Miss Sturgeon’s popularity on the wane because of her renewed push for independence. She added: ‘I think she is a more divisive figure than she once was.
‘There are a lot of people that wanted to give Nicola Sturgeon a chance who had found Alex Salmond quite divisive and wanted Scotland to move on, because we were promised that if we made a decision it would be respected by all sides and we could move on.
‘Now that they find her dragging us back to a place the majority of Scots don’t want us to go they feel hurt, angry and let down.’
An SNP spokesman said: ‘The First Minister has set out a clear, fair timescale for a vote – and Theresa May’s position is democratically indefensible and completely unsustainable.’
‘Feel hurt, angry and let down’