Independence vote timing must be decided here, says Sturgeon
NICOLA Sturgeon has warned the UK Government there should be “no blocking mechanisms” applied to her plans for a second independence referendum.
The First Minister also insisted the referendum timing and question should be determined by Scotland and not by London.
Speaking after a meeting of her senior ministerial team, Ms Sturgeon said: “Cabinet today agreed that the referendum must be for Scotland’s national legislature to shape. It should be up to the Scottish Parliament to determine the referendum’s timing, franchise and the question.”
She said the Scottish Government “has a cast-iron democratic mandate for an independence referendum”.
She added: “The vote must take place within a timeframe to allow an informed choice to be made when the terms of Brexit are clear but before the UK leaves the European Union or shortly afterwards.
“In that way, with the vote taking place between the autumn of 2018 and the spring of 2019, the independence prospectus which we will offer people can be contrasted directly with the Brexit deal which the UK Government will have negotiated by the start of that period.”
After the Scottish Cabinet met in her official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh, Ms Sturgeon said: “There should be no strings attached, no blocking mechanisms applied and no Downing Street diktat - Scotland’s referendum must be made in Scotland.”
She added: “That was the exact description the UK Government themselves used ahead of the 2014 referendum and the same principle should apply now.”
She made the comments after Prime Minister Theresa May accused the SNP of “playing politics with the future of our country” and said a second referendum would create “more uncertainty and division”.
Mrs May’s comments were seen as an indication she could delay the referendum until after the expected completion of the Brexit process in spring 2019. Some reports have suggested permission could be conditional on the SNP gaining an absolute majority in the 2021 Scottish elections.
Ms Sturgeon pointed out Mrs May took the keys to Number 10 without an election or a Tory leadership contest.
The Prime Minister was barracked by MPs as she told the House of Commons she had been “working closely” with the Scottish Government on preparations for Brexit. She told the Commons: “This is not a moment to play politics or create uncertainty.
“It is a moment to bring our country together, to honour the will of the British people and to shape for them a better, brighter future and a better Britain.”
Meanwhile, Madrid’s foreign minister Alfonso Dastis played down the chances of an independent Scotland remaining in the European Union (EU) after Brexit.
According to Europa Press, Mr Dastis told reporters in Peru an independent Scotland “can’t just stay in the EU”.
Any prospective application to the EU can be vetoed by any member and Spain is nervous about its own internal separatist movements.
The European Commission’s deputy chief spokesman Alexander Winterstein refused to be drawn on whether Scotland could inherit the UK’s membership of the EU without leaving the bloc.