A wobble over independence
Timescale for referendum? I don’t know, says Sturgeon
NICOLA Sturgeon has admitted she now has no idea when there will be a second independence referendum, in an astonishing wobble over her bid to break up Britain.
The SNP leader dropped her previous commitment to press for a poll to split the Union at the end of the Brexit process and said she does not know when it will happen.
She acknowledged that people feel ‘very uncertain about everything just now’, attributing that to the fact they have had to make ‘one big decision after another’ in the past few years.
When pressed on when she would attempt to hold a second referendum, she said: ‘The honest answer to that is: I don’t know.’
She added: ‘I am now saying OK, people are not ready to decide now that we will do that, so we have to come back to that and decide when things are clearer whether we want to do it and what timescale we want to do it.’
Last night, opponents said that Nationalists are finally realising that ‘their dream is over’, three years after a resounding majority of Scots rejected the SNP’s bid to break up Britain.
It comes after a Scottish Daily Mail poll published last week revealed voters are deserting the SNP in droves – and that it is on track to lose its proindependence majority at Holyrood in the next Scottish election. in an interview with the New Statesman magazine if her timescale is still the same as she previously said, Miss Sturgeon responded: ‘The honest answer to that is: I don’t know.’ She also said she would decide after Brexit takes place ‘whether we want to do it and in what timescale’.
It is a remarkable admission from Miss Sturgeon, who has repeatedly refused to take the threat of a rerun of the 2014 poll off the table.
Miss Sturgeon first announced plans for a second referendum between the autumn of 2018 and spring of 2019 earlier this year.
But Theresa May’s snap General Election sparked an anti-independence backlash in which the SNP lost 500,000 votes and 21 MPs.
After the result, Miss Sturgeon admitted independence was a factor, though in a statement to MSPs in June she refused to take the threat of another separation vote off the table.
A Survation poll for the Mail, published last week, shows support for the SNP on the regional list has dropped by 11 percentage points since last year’s Holyrood election, to 31 per cent, while its constituency vote has fallen by 4.5 percentage points, to 42 per cent. The slump would mean there would be no pro-independence majority in the next parliament.
Asked in the New Statesman interview if she regretted demanding another independence vote, she said: ‘Obviously, I’m thinking pretty deeply about it. I think Brexit is a complete and utter car crash – an unfolding disaster.
‘I haven’t changed my views on that, and I think it’s deeply wrong for [Scotland] to be taken down that path without the ability to decide whether that’s right or not. I recognise, as well – and it’s obviously something I have reflected on – that understandably people feel very uncertain about everything just now, partly because the past few years have been one big decision after another.’ Scottish Tory constitution spokesman Adam Tomkins said: ‘Perhaps this admission from Nicola Sturgeon explains why the SNP has been so rattled of late. For the Nationalists their dream is over – they know
‘They know it is not going to happen’
another divisive and disruptive independence referendum is not going to happen in their lifetime.’
In the interview, Miss Sturgeon also indicated she would back a second referendum on EU membership when Brexit terms are clear.