Sturgeon wants split vote in 2020
NICOLA Sturgeon called for another vote on Scottish independence next year after the SNP polled its best ever result in a European election.
The First Minister said the ‘latter half’ of next year would be the ‘right time’.
The SNP leader hailed a ‘historic and spectacular victory’ after polling 38 per cent – pushing Labour into fifth place and garnering them three MEPs.
Speaking in Dublin yesterday, she said: ‘This is an overwhelming rejection of Brexit by the people of Scotland.
‘Scotland said no to Brexit in 2016. This result makes clear, we meant it. The SNP will continue working with other parties to stop Brexit and all the ensuing economic damage to Scotland. If all Westminster has to offer is more chaos and confusion – potentially under the premiership of an extreme Tory Brexiteer – then more and more people will come to the conclusion Scotland’s future is best served as an independent country.’
However, the SNP can only legally hold a referendum with the agreement of the West minster government. The Tories have always said the 2014 independence vote was a once in a generation poll, meaning they would not agree to a second vote.
The SNP’s previous best result in a Euroelection was 33 per cent in 1994. The pro-independence party won the vote in 30 of 32 Scottish local authorities.
Across Scotland, the Brexit Party came second, with the Tories a poor fourth behind the Liberal Democrats. Labour MPs north of the border warned the party may never recover from the drubbing, after it failed to get an MEP elected for the first time.
Labour’s David Martin – who had been the UK’s longest-serving MEP, having first been elected in 1984 – said his party paid the price for its failure to take a clear stand on Brexit. He tweeted: ‘We lost not because of lack of effort but lack of clear message.’
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson admitted: ‘It was clear before the election the Conservatives were going to get a kicking across the UK for not delivering Brexit as promised.’
‘Going to get a kicking’