No second referendum unless leavers call for it

The case for a second referendum has definitely improved, a momentum has built over the last year, but I wouldn’t say it is likely.

The polls are suggesting the public are now more likely to vote to Remain – in Scotland it is up from 62 percent to more like 70, and that is significant.

I think people’s minds will change if they come to believe that this is going to be disastrous and affect them badly – and maybe we need to be out of the EU for people to appreciate that fully.

There are real challenges to a second referendum however. People who voted to leave felt left behind and forgotten in society and they were expressing their anger and disillusionment.

If you are to say to those people that the first referendum didn’t count, then that could cause serious discontent. I think if there is to be another vote, it needs to be a significant body of those people and those communities who voted Leave who are calling for it.

We need to see people who campaigned for Leave support the idea of a second vote – I think that would legitimise it.

But I do worry about a second referendum and how it would be perceived. There are no upsides to Brexit, but to ignore the first vote could open the way for dark forces.

I am not against it but I think it would need to be something that evolved out of people who previously thought Brexit was a good idea coming around to actively calling for a rethink.

There doesn’t seem to be any great appetite for a second Scottish referendum as things stand.

I think that is unlikely to change until people get an idea of what Brexit means. For example, when they feel the UK Government have taken them down a terrible path.

I think the issue is still alive and it will be revisited at some time but when that will be is very difficult to predict.