THE ANSWER IS STILL NO!
As SNP ramps up independence rhetoric, No10 signals that calls for re-run of 2014 vote would be rejected:
DOWNING Street last night stood firm against Nicola Sturgeon’s bid to ‘restart’ her push to break up Britain.
Only 24 hours after the First Minister raised the threat of a second independence referendum, a spokesman for Theresa May said ‘now is not the time’ to discuss another divisive vote. The Nationalists’ latest drive comes only four years after the country decisively rejected the separatist plans at the ballot box.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson also insisted that a referendum would not be approved by No10 because there is no public appetite for it.
Miss Sturgeon revealed at the weekend that she is preparing to ‘restart’ her push to tear Scotland out of the UK – little more than a year after her previous demand for the power to hold a rerun of the 2014 referendum was rejected by the Prime Minister.
At the time, Miss Davidson played a crucial role in Downing Street’s decision to say no. This galvanised the Conservatives, leading to the party winning 13 Scottish seats at last year’s
general election. The SNP vote slumped, resulting in the loss of 21 Nationalist MPs.
Asked yesterday if she thought Miss Sturgeon would demand a referendum before the 2021 Holyrood election, Miss Davidson said: ‘I think she was chastened last year after calling for that second vote and then losing almost a third of her Westminster seats, and you saw that the official position had changed to “wait and see”.
‘Now, even with her comments yesterday about restarting the debate, my understanding is that their official position is still “wait and see”.
‘But my advice to the Prime Minister is if the question is the same [as last year] the answer should be the same.’
Theresa May’s advisers also yesterday rejected suggestions there could be another independence campaign. A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘Now is not the time for another divisive independence referendum and there is no appetite for one.
‘The people of Scotland voted decisively in 2014 to remain part of the United Kingdom and that should be respected.’
A senior Tory source said any request to hold a referendum would be rejected for the same reasons as last year. The 2014 vote was supposed to be a ‘once in a generation’ event. The source added: ‘If anything, the case against it has hardened because of last year’s general election.’
In a speech on Unionism at a Policy Exchange conference in London, Miss Davidson made a plea to her colleagues in the UK Government to do more to promote the Union. She warned the Union remains ‘under threat’ and that complacency among its supporters would be wrong.
It remains unknown, she added, how people will respond to SNP arguments about Brexit ‘over the medium term’.
Arguing that new powers devolved to Holyrood have ‘changed the Union for the good’, the Scottish Tory leader said: ‘Scotcan land and other parts of the UK don’t just need more devolution, they now need more Union too – to show that all parts of the UK are just that: part and parcel of our great Union of nations which each, in their part, has helped to build.
‘We’ve had more devolution in Scotland; we now need more Union too.’
She said the UK is too ‘London-centric’ and that moving Channel 4 out of the capital should be ‘just the start’. Arms’-length bodies of government and cultural institutions should follow suit, along with more UK Government funding for poorer parts of the country.
‘Or take sport,’ Miss Davidson said. ‘Nothing has the power to bring a country together more. Ironically – given what I’ve just been saying – it was the London Olympics, which shared its venues across the UK, which provided the most vivid recent example.
‘So we should be thinking of what other events we can bring to our nation. I hesitate here in floating the idea of a joint UK-wide World Cup bid – knowing just how much trouble it would land me in with the Scottish FA. But it’s a thought isn’t it? And this is a think-tank, so – as long as it doesn’t mean a joint team on the pitch – what the hell.’
She added that if a ‘better Union’ be delivered then ‘I’m confident we can see off separation’.
The Scottish Conservatives also yesterday launched a public petition demanding ‘better government – not another independence referendum’.
Chief whip Maurice Golden said: ‘It’s another day and another opportunity for Nicola Sturgeon to try to push for separation. Once again she’s concentrating on her narrow-minded agenda rather than getting on with the day job.
‘She needs to learn that Scots are fed up of her talking about independence, and want her to get on with improving schools and hospitals.’
At yesterday’s Policy Exchange conference, Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said Theresa May is ‘a very strong Unionist’ and insisted that her party’s ‘confidence and supply’ agreement at Westminster benefits the whole of the UK, not just Northern Ireland.
And she said that, if there had been a sitting Northern Irish Assembly, she would have backed the Welsh Government in agreeing that changes to the EU Withdrawal Bill were ‘acceptable’ and protect devolution – despite the SNP saying they are a ‘power grab’.
Yesterday, Miss Sturgeon said a Growth Commission report on the economic case for independence, due to be published this week, will be ‘frank about the challenges’.
The commission, led by former MSP Andrew Wilson, is expected to back Scotland continuing to use the pound without the consent of Westminster if it becomes independent before switching to a separate Scottish currency.
Miss Sturgeon said she had not seen the final report but was ‘looking forward to seeing it in the coming days’.
Speaking in Glasgow ahead of a Cabinet meeting on Monday, the First Minister said: ‘I expect it to be a very positive report, not sugarcoated.
‘It will, I hope, be frank about the challenges we face as a country, but also very positive about how independence can equip us to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the future, and I think that will be quite refreshing in Scotland because the last couple of years have been very much focused on how we limit the damage of Brexit.
‘Instead of a debate based on despair, this is an opportunity to turn our minds to a debate that’s all about hope, optimism and ambition for Scotland.’
Comment – Page 18
‘Confident we can see off separation’