First Minister implores UK Government to reverse austerity after EU vote

Nicola Sturgeon is to call on the UK Government to tackle the “disenfranchisement and disillusionment” behind the Brexit vote and reverse its austerity policies.

Scotland’s First Minister, pictured, is one of the keynote speakers at the Institute of Directors’ annual convention in London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Earlier, a former SNP cabinet secretary suggested the First Minister should prioritise getting more powers from Brussels ahead of a second independence vote. Focusing on the EU referendum result, Ms Sturgeon will say the UK Government can “no longer ignore the social and economic cost of inequality” as a major driver behind the leave vote.

Ms Sturgeon is expected to say she cannot “ignore the fact that even in Scotland, a million people voted to leave”.

She will continue: “In part, Brexit was a product of a sense of disenfranchisement and disillusionment.

“It was borne of inequality, of feelings of powerlessness – of austerity budgets which hurt the public services and social safety nets that so many people depend on.

“And so one consequence of the referendum must be a new effort, which needs to be given real substance in the UK Government’s Autumn Statement, to ensure that the benefits of growth, of globalisation, are more fairly distributed.”

Alex Neil MSP, who was in Ms Sturgeon’s cabinet, said the SNP leader should hold out on indyref2 until the 2020s and focus on “neoindependence”, through acquiring major new powers from Brexit.

Ex-FM Alex Salmond has predicted a second vote on independence in 2018.