‘No right’ for SNP to call for referendum

The SNP has “no right” to go for a second independence referendum without garnering the support of most Scots, Nicola Sturgeon said.

In the grandest manifesto launch Scotland has seen, the SNP leader asked voters for her first mandate before tempering calls for an immediate re-run of the referendum by setting specific triggers – but she went off-script to tell 1,400 supporters that it is only a matter of time before independence is achieved.

She told the Edinburgh International Conference Centre: “This summer we will start new work to persuade a majority in Scotland of the case for independence. If we don’t succeed, we will have no right to propose another referendum.

“But if we do succeed – when we succeed – if in the future there is clear and sustained evidence that independence has become the preferred option of a majority of the Scottish people – then no politician will have the right to stand in the way.”

Other manifesto pledges included a rail and bus terminal for Perth as part of a plan to “invest in redeveloped station hubs” at five towns and cities in Scotland.

An SNP promise to “examine the case” for the reopening of the Stirling-Alloa to Dunfermline route to public use by upgrading the Longannet freight line was also welcomed by campaigners.

Martin Keatings, a Cairneyhill resident who has petitioned the Scottish Parliament to bring back the line, said it was “great” news, but “only the beginning”.

“Its construction increases the economic viability of the Levenmouth rail link and the St Andrews rail links.

“We should all be looking at this as phase one of a bright future for Scottish Rail,” he said.

However, a pledge to create a “major trauma network” for patients with serious injuries, which includes “utilising” sites in Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, was dubbed “weasel words” by Labour’s North East list candidate Lewis Macdonald.

Doctors raised fears last month the Scottish Government would retreat from its plan to open major trauma centres in the regions in favour of Central Belt sites.

The Scottish Conservatives said Ms Sturgeon’s comments on independence, which referred to secession as inevitable, are a “recipe for uncertainty”.

Leader Ruth Davidson said: “She promised the last referendum would be ‘once in a generation’ – today she has broken her word to the Scottish people.”

Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Willie Rennie said: “It is a complacent offer from a party who think they have already won the election.”