Sturgeon and May braced for referendum showdown
Leaders are poised for crunch talks within days on the prospect of second independence vote
NICOLA Sturgeon and Theresa May are moving towards direct talks on an independence referendum, The Herald understands, with both sides ready to open discussions within days.
The First Minister yesterday said she was “up for continued discussion” and willing to drop her original timetable of autumn 2018 to spring 2019 for a new vote.
Meanwhile, Downing Street suggested the two leaders could meet before the Prime Minister triggers the Article 50 withdrawal process from the European Union at the end of this month.
Mrs May’s spokesman said: “There will be opportunities between now and the triggering of Article 50 for more conversations to take place.”
The Prime Minister is preparing a grand tour of the UK , which is likely to include a visit to Edinburgh, before sending her Article 50 letter to Brussels.
The Herald understands one possibility is for Mrs May and Ms Sturgeon to meet during the Scotland leg of her journeys.
A failure to confer would worsen already strained cross-Border relations.
A Scottish Government source said there had not yet been a direct approach from Whitehall, but the First Minister was keen to sit down with Mrs May: “Just name the time and place.”
The hint of a rapprochement follows one of the most torrid weeks for devolution.
Ms Sturgeon announced on Monday she intended to hold a referendum to let Scots choose between Brexit in the UK on the one hand and independence and a different relationship with Europe on the other.
She insisted she had a “cast-iron mandate” to call the vote, as the SNP manifesto said Holyrood should have the right to hold one if Scotland was taken out the EU unwillingly.
Mrs May’s response was to rule out a referendum on Ms Sturgeon’s timetable by denying Holyrood the necessary transfer of powers, arguing the UK Government’s focus needed to be on the two years of complex Brexit negotiations that lie ahead instead. does not agree with that. So let her set out when she thinks it would be right, and then let’s have a discussion about it. Who knows, we might only be a matter of weeks or months apart.
“So I’m up for continued discussion, but... you can’t have discussion and reach compromise with people who are not prepared to enter into discussion and are not prepared to countenance compromise, and that so far has been my experience of the Prime Minister.”
Ms Sturgeon will repeat her offer in her speech to the SNP conference today. She will tell activists in Aberdeen if the Prime Minister refuses to accept next week’s Holyrood
The Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson later said Ms Sturgeon would have to “earn the right” to a second referendum, implying she would need to win another Holyrood majority.
Signalling her readiness to bend, Ms Sturgeon said: “I have set out when I think it would be right. She [Mrs May] vote on a transfer of referendum powers, it would “shatter beyond repair any notion of the UK as a respectful partnership of equals”.
She will say of Mrs May: “She has time to think again and I hope she does. If her concern is timing then – within reason – I am happy to have that discussion.”
Scottish Tory chief whip John Lamont said: “Nicola Sturgeon said as late as Thursday that a referendum after April 2019 would be ‘too late’. Now she has changed her mind and appears to be trying to engage in some kind of horse-trading with the UK
Government. The future of Scotland is not a game. It is time for the First Minister to act responsibly over our future.”
The first day of SNP conference also saw a row break out over whether Ms Sturgeon might call a unilateral referendum without Westminster consent if Mrs May continued to block her.
In an interview with STV, the First Minister refused nine times to rule out a consultative referendum, while her deputy John Swinney failed three times to rule one out on Radio 4.
Asked repeatedly if a consultative referendum was on the table, Ms Sturgeon said there were “various options”, but insisted: “My intention is that we have a referendum on the same basis we had as the one in 2014.”
The Catalans held a consultative referendum in 2014, in defiance of the Spanish government, leading to president Artur Mas being banned from public office for life.
Labour MP Ian Murray said the SNP “must immediately withdraw the threat to impose an illegitimate and divisive referendum”.
Deputy Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw said: “Such a process would make Scotland the laughing stock of the world. The 2014 referendum was legal and fair, but a wildcat version – as so many SNP members seem to want – would be anything but. It appears Nicola Sturgeon’s half-baked SNP’s referendum plans are descending into chaos.”
Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s failure to rule out a wildcat referendum is reckless. It would be following the lead taken by the Catalans who organised a referendum that was boycotted by the opposition and led to nothing.”
Scottish Government advisers insisted there was no intention to hold a rogue vote, and ministers wanted a “legal, fair and decisive” ballot based on Westminster passing a so-called Section 30 order.