WE’LL SAY NO TO INDYREF 2
‘NO APPETITE FOR VOTE’ CLAIM Leonard says Labour would block new poll
SCOTTISH Labour leader Richard Leonard has claimed a Labour government would oppose granting a further referendum on Scottish independence.
Questioned on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland programme over a second Scottish independence poll, he claimed there was “no appetite for it”.
Pressed further on whether a Section 30 Order required for the vote would be refused, he said a Labour government “would not agree to a second independence referendum”.
His comments follow increasing speculation that SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon will call for the power to hold a second referendum in the near future – expected to be rejected by Westminster – having said in January she would set out her thoughts on the issue in the “coming weeks”.
Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay was interviewed on the same programme and believes if Scotland leaves the UK following a second independence referendum, a forecast GDP deficit of around six per cent can be halved faster than the five to 10 years predicted by a leading economist.
In a major shift in SNP policy, Mackay and SNP depute leader Keith Brown will put forward a motion to the party’s conference next month to adopt as the official party line that an SNP Government in an independent Scotland would establish an independent currency. The plan envisages Scotland using the pound during a transition period following a vote to leave the UK.
The Scottish Parliament would decide on establishing the new currency by the end of its first term in an independent Scotland. In the run-up to the 2014 referendum, then first minister Alex Salmond said Scotland would continue to use the pound in a UK-wide currency union – a proposition rejected by parties opposing independence.
Mackay was questioned on advice from economist Andrew Wilson, who predicted a GDP deficit of around six per cent following independence and suggested this should be halved over five to 10 years before any independent Scottish currency was introduced.
The forecast was made in a May 2018 report by the Growth Commission, set up to prepare a new economic blueprint for independence. Scottish Labour and the Lib Dems claim the Growth Commission plans would lead to austerity.