Next Holyrood election will be ‘most important’ in history
Next year’s Holyrood election will be the most important in Scotland’s history, according to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
With the SNP fighting to win a record fourth term in power, she said voters will be presented with a “stark choice” between her party and the “utterly regressive” Conservatives in the May 2021 ballot. She also made clear the SNP manifesto for the election will include a commitment to hold a second Scottish independence referendum and insisted it will be “utterly untenable and unsustainable” for the Tory government at Westminster to deny such a vote in the event of an SNP victory.
Her comments come after opinion polls suggested the SNP could be on course for an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament – and that a majority of Scots now favour independence.
Writing in Holyrood Magazine’s 2020 annual review, the First Minister said she will “relish the chance to return to politics as normal once circumstances allow, especially as we look ahead to next year’s election”.
She said: “That election will be, in my view without question, the most important in Scotland’s history. Not only will it provide a stark choice between the progressive policy platform offered by the SNP and the utterly regressive agenda of the Conservatives, it will be an election which is, at its heart, about democracy.
“We are privileged to live in a democracy. But if that is to mean anything it must mean accepting the results of free and fair democratic elections.”