Embarrassment for Nicola as two of her top cabinet members join group demanding rerun of vote
TWO of Nicola Sturgeon’s most senior Ministers have backed a campaign calling for a rerun of the independence referendum in 2018.
Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead and Education Secretary Angela Constance have joined a group set up to campaign for the SNP to hold another poll on whether or not Scotland should leave the UK.
Other prominent Nationalist politicians have also signed up to Yes 2 Scotland’s Independence, which calls on supporters to ‘rise above the dictators’ at Westminster and demands that the party commits to a second referendum in its manifesto for next year’s Scottish election.
The revelations expose the growing pressure within the party to put Scotland’s future in the UK on the line again.
Miss Sturgeon has refused to outline a timetable for another referendum – but promised to lay out the circumstances which would lead to one in her manifesto. She has even blocked members from debating the issue at the spring conference in Aberdeen next month.
It is humiliating for the First Minister that some of her closest colleagues have joined a campaign designed to pile pressure on her to commit to another referendum.
Scottish Tory chief whip John Lamont said: ‘It’s embarrassing for Nicola Sturgeon that two of her trusted frontbenchers are signed up to this. How can the SNP maintain its position on there being no plans for another referendum when two of its most senior figures are publicly banging the drum for a rerun? ‘The party needs to accept it lost, not pander to these desperate protests and let Scotland get on with the rest of its life.’
Yes 2 Scotland’s Independence was set up as a company in July. Its registered head office is a flat in North-East Glasgow and its only director is activist Karen Martin.
Those listed as members on its website include Mr Lochhead and Miss Constance, former Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson, Perth and North Perthshire MP Pete Wishart, Livingston MP Hannah Bardell and Dundee West MP Chris Law.
The group, which has nearly 10,000 members, encourages them to sign a petition to ‘demand’ a referendum is promised in the SNP’s manifesto for the 2016 election. The petition says: ‘I strongly believe that Scotland will be better off in the future being run by its own parliament and away from the powers of Westminster. I am signing this for the benefit of myself, Scotland and its generations to come.’ Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said: ‘The First Minister will be seething about this. It makes it difficult to avoid the question about whether you want a second referendum soon when senior members of your cabinet seem signed up to the idea.’ Mr Lochhead and Miss Constance failed to return calls. Asked if he backed a pledge for another referendum in next year’s manifesto, Mr Wishart said: ‘That is not something I am currently in the position of promoting.’
Within an hour of The Scottish Mail on Sunday contacting SNP head office about the group, all six politicians had withdrawn their membership.
An SNP spokesman said: ‘We are not planning another referendum, but equally it is not in the gift of any politician or party to rule it out indefinitely. The timing of any future referendum is a matter for the people of Scotland to decide – the people, not politicians, are in charge.’