Sturgeon: We’ll hold referendum in next 2 years

NICOLA Sturgeon has vowed to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence in the next two years, setting up a major clash with Boris Johnson.

The First Minister announced that, ‘Covid permitting’, the fresh vote would be held by the end of 2023.

She said the Scottish Government would now start working on a ‘detailed prospectus’ so that people can make a ‘fully informed choice’. Announcing her policy plans for the coming year, she told the Scottish Parliament yesterday that her Programme for Government reaffirms the ‘commitment to an independence referendum’.

But Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross told her it was wrong to make another divisive independence referendum her priority instead of recovery from the pandemic.

He said: ‘This government should be pouring every single bit of time and effort into our economy, into tackling drug deaths and into remobilising our NHS.’

The Prime Minister insists now is not the time to hold a fresh vote, with the first one in 2014 ending in a majority wanting to remain in the UK. But his Scottish Secretary

Alister Jack recently conceded that one could be held if opinion polls consistently show at least 60 per cent of Scots want to go it alone. Most surveys taken since May’s elections show a slim lead for those opposing independence.

And in another blow to Miss Sturgeon, it emerged one of her new economic advisers Professor Mark Blyth described Scottish independence as ‘Brexit times ten’.