Westminster now ‘accepting the reality’ over indyref2, says Swinney
● Deputy First Minister responds to tweet from Gove over voting franchise
The UK Government is “accepting the reality” there will have to be a second referendum on independence, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has said.
Responding to a comment from Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove, he said the voting franchise should remain the same as the 2014 referendum.
Mr Gove had tweeted that giving a vote to Scots who live elsewhere in the UK was an
“interesting question”. It was also reported yesterday the UK Government minister had met privately with igures from other parties to discuss support for the Union.
Mr Swinney was asked about both these points on yesterday’s BBC’S Good Morning Scotland radio programme.
He said: “This move and this talk is essentially an indication of an acceptance of the reality that we’re now facing – that support for Scottish independence is demonstrating itself at a strong, consistent Yes position and majority support for Yes which is now emerging in a number of polls. So I think what we’re now seeing is the UK Government accepting that there will have to be a referendum on independence, and that’s a welcome position for them to take and it’s a democratic position for them to take.”
He continued: “We had a referendum in 2014 in which people took the view that this was a well-organised referendum, with the correct franchise in which the people who are eligible to vote here in Scotland were able to do so.
“And I think that served us well. There was international commendation for the strength and the quality of the process we put in place in 2014.
“And I don’t think we should deviate from that because of the inconvenience for the UK Government of the fact that Yes support is now demonstrating such a strong position within Scotland.”
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard blamed the “conduct” of Prime Minister Boris Johnson for the rise in support for the SNP.
He said: “I think juxtaposing Nicola Sturgeon with Boris Johnson, people clearly hold Nicola Sturgeon in much higher regard.
“I think there has been an incredible amount of media exposure to the SNP in a way that simply hasn’t been available to other political parties, which I think has also cemented that level of support.”
A poll released by Panelbase earlier this week had shown support for independence among Scots now sitting at a record 55 per cent, if undecideds were excluded.
Support for No also fell to 45 per cent.
Mr Leonard said: “People want greater clarity of message on the constitution and that’s why the Scottish Labour Party executive decided a couple of months ago the clarity that we need to provide is provided by saying that we are in favour of remaining in the UK, but reforming the UK.
“For the purposes of next year’s election, we do not see the need for or the support for a second independence referendum, we just don’t think that should be the priority.”