Ruth’s red lines over SNP push for new referendum
RUTH Davidson has rejected claims there should be another vote on Scotland’s place in the UK if there is a proindependence majority at the next Holyrood election.
Former Scottish Secretary David Mundell had said the UK Government would ‘have to listen’ if the SNP, Greens and other pro-independence parties win a majority of seats in 2021 if a referendum is a key campaign pledge.
But Miss Davidson believes the SNP would need to win a majority of seats on its own in order to have a mandate to begin negotiations on another vote.
The issue is set to dominate the next Holyrood elections.
A spokesman for Miss Davidson said her view ‘differs’ from Mr Mundell’s because she thinks there needs to be ‘a majority of Nationalist MSPs rather than just a pro-independence majority’.
He said: ‘We are determined to try to prevent there being a majority of SNP or pro-independence MSPs, and therefore take indyref2 off the table.’
He also said there is likely to be a firm commitment in the 2021 election manifesto stating that if the Scottish Conservatives forms a government it would ‘take the threat of an independence referendum off the table’.
Last month, Miss Davidson told the BBC ‘Nicola Sturgeon herself has said she only has the right to hold another referendum if a majority of Scots want it’.
Pressed on what would give the First Minister a mandate for a new vote, Miss Davidson said that only ‘another majority in a Holyrood election’ would be enough. She said: ‘If she puts it in a manifesto that she’s going to hold another referendum and wins a majority outright, then she can negotiate with the UK government in the same way as happened last time.
‘But she doesn’t, in the middle of a parliament where she’s lost her majority, get to stick her hand up and say “I’m going to re-run this referendum again and again until I get the result I want”.’
Mr Mundell is a close ally of Miss Davidson’s and is likely to remain a key figure in drawing up party strategy despite being axed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his first week in the post.
When Theresa May rejected Miss Sturgeon’s demand for the power to hold a referendum in 2017, Mr Mundell united with Miss Davidson to insist the SNP would need ‘clear public or political consent’ to allow a rerun of the 2014 vote.
Last week, he said: ‘If the 2021 Scottish parliament election is fought explicitly on the issue of another referendum, and then there is a majority of nationalist parties then evidently you do have to listen to that.
‘The 2016 Scottish parliament election wasn’t fought on that basis, it was sort of a subset of the SNP manifesto and my view is the wording they put there was deliberately ambiguous so as not to allow them to not major on independence but then claim they had a mandate for independence.
‘If the 2021 Scottish parliament election is fought on an explicit independence referendum basis then it is harder to push back against the idea that there isn’t a mandate for that.’
An SNP spokesman said: ‘The SNP has a crystal clear mandate to hold another referendum. There is majority support for independence, with most people in favour of another vote before 2021.’
‘Take indyref2 off the table’