MSPS back plans for referendum

The Scottish Parliament has backed the idea of planning another independence referendum despite accusations it is "reckless and damaging" to do so during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Scottish Conservatives described the SNP'S recent announcement of an independence taskforce and a route map for a vote on independence was "not just unfathomable, but unforgivable". But in a parliamentary debate, a Tory motion calling for the Scottish Government to create a vaccine taskforce rather than one to plan another referendum campaign was rejected by MSPS.

The failed motion called for Parliament to agree that "planning an independence referendum in 2021, during an ongoing global pandemic, would be reckless and damaging". Instead, an SNP amendment stating "there can be no justification whatsoever to deny people in Scotland their democratic rights" if there is a pro-independence majority after May's Holyrood election passed by 65 votes to 56

Opening the debate, the Scottish Conservatives' health spokesman Donald Cameron said: "After everything Scotland has gone through and is still going through, it simply beggars belief that this Government thinks it's right to talk about Indyref2 at this point in time. For some completely unfathomable reason, the SNP have chosen the middle of a global pandemic as the right time to serialise their never-ending obsession with independence. That's not just unfathomable, but unforgivable."