Sturgeon’s new threat to Union

First Minister accused of using Brexit chaos to boost her bid to break up the United Kingdom

NICOLA Sturgeon was yesterday accused of using Brexit chaos to boost her bid to break up Britain after announcing she could unveil her demands for another independence referendum within weeks. The SNP leader claimed the case for separation has ‘grown stronger each and every single day’ since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016.

But her comments sparked claims she is acting in the ‘Nationalist interest’ over the national interest. Scottish Tory interim leader Jackson Carlaw said: ‘The last thing the people of Scotland want is more division and uncertainty.

‘Yet the First Minister is using Brexit developments to do exactly that. Far from acting in the national interest, Nicola Sturgeon is only acting in the Nationalist interest.

‘Using Brexit to agitate for independence didn’t work for the SNP immediately after the Brexit vote and it won’t work this time.

‘It’s time for Nicola Sturgeon to take the threat of another independence referendum off the table and start governing in Scotland’s interests.’

Miss Sturgeon said at last month’s SNP conference that she would set out her timescale for another vote on breaking up Britain once the ‘fog’ of Brexit had cleared.

At First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood yesterday, she suggested this could be in a few weeks, once a vote on the Brexit deal takes place.

Referring to her timetable for another vote, she said: ‘I will come back to the Chamber and set out my views on the precise detail of that when we have clarity.

‘We now have seen the terms of the deal – we will see whether that makes it to a vote in the House of Commons over the next couple of weeks. We will see how that whole sorry saga plays out then I will give that commitment, undertake that commitment.

‘Let me say two things in addition, though.

‘Firstly, I have no doubt that Scotland will get an opportunity to choose again on independence.

‘When it does, I am confident Scotland will choose to be an independent country because in the last two years – from the decision that risks taking us out of the EU against our will to the way in which the Scottish Government trying to represent the interests of the people of Scotland has been sidelined, to the way in which the powers of this parliament have been undermined – the case for independence has grown stronger each and every single day.

‘The sooner this parliament is independent, the sooner this country is independent, no longer at the mercy of Tory governments who do not have our interests at heart, the better.

‘When that time comes I have no doubt the people of Scotland will choose to be independent.’

Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie, who campaigned for independence in 2014, said his party was ready to begin the push for separation and asked if the First Minister was, too.

She replied: ‘The Scottish National Party started that a long time ago and has never stopped campaigning for independence, so my message to Patrick Harvie is, “What’s holding you back?” Get out there and make the case for Scotland to be an independent country.

‘The case for independence, which I have long thought has been made, has got stronger every day over the past two years.

‘In terms of the precise timing of Scotland having that opportunity to choose, people deserve clarity about what else might unfold over the next period. Are we going to have another general election?

‘Is there going to be a second EU referendum? It is reasonable to wait and allow that to play out over the next few weeks.’

Miss Sturgeon added: ‘There is a big problem for Scotland. Let me spell it out: Scotland faces being taken out of the European Union against our democratic wishes and being taken out of the single market against our economic interests.

‘We face being put at a competitive disadvantage to Northern Ireland. That is what the Tories are presiding over and Jackson Carlaw and every single member of the Tory party should be ashamed of themselves.’

But Mr Carlaw accused Miss Sturgeon of using ‘the same tired old lines’ about Brexit and claimed she had followed a ‘grudge and grievance agenda’ since the EU vote.

He said: ‘Everything that the First Minister has said and done since has been in relentless pursuance of the goal that she has in mind – even now, using the history of Northern Ireland, with all the desperate turmoil that has involved – for her singular political advantage. That is the disgrace today.

‘To turn the First Minister’s cliché on its head, it is she who should be thoroughly ashamed of herself.’

Scottish Tory constitution spokesman Adam Tomkins accused the SNP of stirring up a ‘cocktail of contrived grievance’ over Brexit.

He said: ‘The SNP has been trying to weaponise Brexit for their separatist advantage and trying to talk up the chaos and confusion Brexit will unleash to prop up their grievance case for a separate Scotland.’

‘Acting only in the Nationalist interest’