INDYREF U-TURN
No new poll by spring 2019 Sturgeon will focus on Brexit She gets approval from party
Nicola Sturgeon is set to put IndyRef2 on hold and focus on delivering a “soft” Brexit.
The First Minister will this week announce plans to park the SNP’s bid for a second independence referendum after their disastrous general election performance and loss of 21 Westminster seats.
It means previous plans to hold a new poll by spring 2019 have been ditched. Sturgeon will reaffirm a commitment to independence but, in the short term, she will not be pushing for a new poll.
She will instead press for a soft Brexit, which would include the UK remaining in the European single market and Scotland being given powers over fishing, farming, environment and justice.
She will also try to restore the reputation of her Government, who have been accused of failing Scotland in key areas like health, education and the economy.
The planned announcement before the Holyrood recess follows a meeting of the SNP’s ruling body when there was near unanimous support for kicking IndyRef2 into the long grass. A senior party insider said: “Doing everything possible to help achieve a soft Brexit for the UK as a whole or Scotland is the priority.
“People can judge on the other side of the negotiations what they want to do about independence.
“Presenting the issue as a choice we can exercise in future works – as does describing independence as an insurance policy.”
Sturgeon’s decision comes after a meeting of the SNP’s national executive committee last Saturday when, according to another senior source, nearly all the members present spoke in favour of parking independence.
The insider said: “Everyone round that table bel ieved in independence but everyone round that table also knew that the prospect of an imminent referendum cost us support.”
After the 2014 independence referendum, then SNP leader Alex Salmond said there wouldn’t be another for a “generation”.
But after the Brexit vote a year ago – when the UK voted 52 to 48 per cent to leave but Scotland voted 62 to 38 per cent to remain – Sturgeon announced that a second Scottish independence referendum was “highly likely”.
In March, she said she wanted a vote between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, when the shape of the Brexit deal between Britain and the EU would be known.
She cal led for a Section 30 order giving Holyrood the power to hold a referendum – but PM Theresa May insisted: “Now is not the time.”
In the snap general election this month, the SNP lost 21 of the 56
seats they had won just two years ago. Scalps claimed by the Tories i nc lu de d S a lmond a nd SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson.
The SNP also lost half a million votes from 2015, prompting calls from her own side for Sturgeon to take IndyRef2 off the table.
A Survation poll for the Daily Record 10 days ago showed 60 per cent of Scots think the SNP should drop the plans – and if there was another vote, the No side would win by 57 per cent to 43 per cent.
Oppos i t ion par t i es say Sturgeon has focused on independence at the expense of key areas like education, health and the economy, and insisted that she get back to the “day job” of running the country.
Yesterday, MSP and former SNP government minister Alex Neil said: “There is absolutely no shame in adjusting your position if the people have made it clear they’re not ready for a referendum, if that is the conclusion Nicola reaches.
“There is no shame in saying, ‘I’ve listened to the people and am going to adjust policy accordingly.’
“The Brexit negotiations are going to be heavily influenced by the new-found political instability in the UK and the new arithmetic in the House of Commons.
“The wise thing to do is wait until after the Brexit negotiations are completed and it is clear what the new trade deal is, then decide if Scotland needs to go down a different path. You can only make that decision once you know the lie of the land.”
A Scottish Government paper last December calling for a soft Brexit was immediately dismissed by May – but her botched election campaign and loss of an overall majority in the Commons without Helping to achieve a soft Brexit is now the priority the support of Northern Ireland’s DUP mean she faces having to compromise over her position.
The Scotland’s Place in Europe document called for the UK to stay in the single market by remaining in the European Economic Area and the customs union.
It also demanded that powers returning from the EU – fishing, environment, agriculture and justice – should become Scottish Parliament responsibilities.
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s new Westminster leader, said: “May’s Tory party have been humbled and it is clear from the watered- down Queen’s Speech that she is in office but not in power.
“In a Parliament of minorities, SNP MPs will take every chance to remind the Tory Government that people across the UK have rejected their obsession for a hard-right Brexit that would drag us out of the single market and customs union, hitting our economy and jobs so hard.
“The Tory Brexit chaos must now come to an end.
“A year on from their disastrous referendum, Theresa May cannot escape the new reality of Brexit – there is no mandate and there is no majority support.
“If she is serious about seeking a UK-wide approach, involving the devolved governments across the UK in the negotiating process is not a question of if, but when.
“The SNP Government put forward an EU paper last year and instead of meeting it with a brick wall, Theresa May should now respond positively and meet with the Joint Ministerial Council to discuss and acknowledge the different circumstances and votes in different parts of the UK.”