Sturgeon tells her party to be patient over independence
NICOLA STURGEON has raised the prospect of a second Scottish independence referendum after Brexit, despite admitting Scots might again vote to stay in the UK if a vote was held now.
Members of the SNP are impatient for another referendum to be held, even though Scotland decisively rejected independence just four years ago. But the Scottish First Minister argued that another referendum cannot be called until “the fog of Brexit” clears so Scots know what the future relationship between the UK and EU will be.
She used her speech to the party conference to urge frustrated delegates
‘The party must take that passion and blend it with pragmatism, perseverance and patience’
to keep working on the ground to persuade those unconvinced by separation. Responding to growing irritation in SNP ranks over her refusal to demand a vote now, she said the party members needed to show “pragmatism, perseverance and patience”.
If they keep their discipline and wait until the time is right, she promised them that the “momentum for independence will be unstoppable”. To cheers, Ms Sturgeon warned the Tories and Labour that “you cannot and you will not” prevent another separation referendum happening. But she provided no detail about how a vote would happen, with Theresa May refusing to transfer the necessary powers.
Ms Sturgeon’s appeal came after her cautious approach to another referendum came under attack from some members and Angus Macneil, the Western Isles MP. Several senior figures, including Joanna Cherry, the home affairs spokesman at Westminster, suggested that separation could be fast-tracked without bothering with a referendum.
It also followed thousands of nationalists marching through Edinburgh at the weekend demanding another vote now. As well as trying to put a lid on internal dissent, Ms Sturgeon used the speech to try and persuade Scots that the UK Government’s “shambolic” handling of Brexit showed independence was necessary.
She was criticised for twisting the words of Winston Churchill to say of Brexit: “Never has so much been lost by so many to satisfy so few.”
Peter Bone, the Conservative MP, accused her of showing “disrespect” to Churchill, who said of those who fought in the Battle of Britain: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
She contrasted a Britain she said was “pulling up the drawbridge, retreating from the world” with a separate Scotland she said would be “aspiring to play our full part in the world around us”.
Ms Sturgeon told the conference that passion on display at the Edinburgh march “gladdens my heart” before sounding a note of caution.
She argued that the party must “take that passion and blend it with pragmatism, perseverance and patience to persuade those not yet persuaded”.
In a warning against charging ahead with demands for an instant vote, she said activists must “strive to see the argument from the other point of view”.
Annie Wells, the Scottish Tory MSP, said: “Nicola Sturgeon asked her supporters to stay patient – the truth is that most people lost patience with the SNP a long time ago.”