Sturgeon: We’ll vote on Indyref
NICOLA Sturgeon will ask Scots to vote at the next election on whether they want another independence referendum.
The First Minister revealed that she is already plotting how to respond if the Prime Minister rejects a request for a rerun of the 2014 poll.
It opens up the prospect of the next election – currently scheduled to be the Holyrood vote in 2021 – being turned into a referendum on whether to hold Indyref 2.
It is the first time that Miss Sturgeon has publicly spoken of how she will respond if Theresa May sticks to her refusal to grant a ‘section 30 order’ giving Holyrood the
power to hold another public vote. It comes after the First Minister said at the weekend that she would reveal her approach to another referendum ‘in the not too distant future’.
Critics condemned her for being prepared to ‘drag Scotland back to more uncertainty and division’.
Miss Sturgeon made the comments at a Women for Independence conference at the weekend. After dismissing suggestions from some delegates that she should hold a Catalonia-style ‘illegal referendum’, she said: ‘The beauty of 2014 was that it was an agreed process.
‘All of this has taken me to the point that I don’t have the easy answer to this. We may get into the situation where the UK Government says, “No, we’re not going to agree the section 30 order”, and I think if that happens we need to rise above that, we need to make the case of how unreasonable that is.
‘And ultimately if the only way through that is to take that to an election and ask the people of Scotland to use an election to say “No, we will have absolutely our right to choose”, I think maybe that’s what that will take.’
It is understood that Miss Sturgeon would write an explicit pledge to hold a referendum into her manifesto for either the next Holyrood election in 2021 or a UK general election if one is called before then.
She will then argue that, if the SNP wins a majority of Scottish seats, she would have a mandate for Indyref 2. If the Greens made the same pledge, she could argue that only a pro-independence majority is required.
Recent polling indicates that support for independence has not grown in recent months, despite uncertainty over the shape of Brexit, and a majority of Scots are also opposed to even holding another vote.
A Panelbase poll of 1,050 Scots, carried out between November 2 and 7 for the Constitutional Commission, found that 52 per cent of Scots would vote No in another referendum, while 43 per cent said they would vote Yes and 5 per cent said they don’t know. A poll by Survation last month found 51 per cent would vote No and 41 per cent would vote Yes.
And a Panelbase poll last month found that a majority of Scots – 53 per cent – did not support another independence referendum in the next few years.
Scottish Conservative chief whip Maurice Golden said: ‘This proves
‘More instability and chaos’
that Nicola Sturgeon never stops thinking about independence – and never stops plotting another break-up attempt.
‘Scotland voted No decisively in 2014, and frankly her priorities should now be lying elsewhere. Instead, she’s prepared to drag Scotland back to more uncertainty and division with this unacceptable tactic.’
On Sunday, Miss Sturgeon told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that once the Brexit ‘dust’ settles, she will come forward with her views on the ‘next steps for Scotland’ in the ‘not too distant future’.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Miss Sturgeon said: ‘The First Minister will outline independence and an independence referendum [plan] in the fairly near future, as she made clear on the Andrew Marr Show. We need more clarity than we have on Brexit at the minute because we don’t know the alternatives, such as a second EU referendum or a general election.
‘Once we have that, she will be happy to lay out her thinking.’ Scottish Labour campaigns spokesman Neil Findlay said: ‘Scotland does not need any more instability and chaos – we have had enough of that from Theresa May – and the people of Scotland would not appreciate any more uncertainty and chaos from Nicola Sturgeon.
‘Scotland needs a government focused on rebuilding our communities by ending austerity in our public services and creating high-skill, high-wage jobs. Only Labour is offering the radical policies Scotland needs to see, with £70billion of investment over the next decade and a commitment to a fairer and better society.
‘The choice is clear: investment, hope and transformation under Labour or austerity from the Tories and timidly accepted by the SNP.’