2ND INDY VOTE WILL BE ENOUGH
FM: Don’t equate poll with Brexit
Brexit not an informed decision like IndyRef vote was
NICOLA Sturgeon has said Scotland would not need a third and final independence referendum to approve any deal to leave the UK.
The SNP leader – who has backed a “confirmatory” vote on Brexit – said leaving the European Union was different as the Brexit referendum was not based on an “informed decision”.
It came as Boris Johnson said he would not grant permission for IndyRef2 while he was prime minister.
A second independence referendum is becoming a central issue for the mainstream parties.
Sturgeon has said she will use the election to call for the power to organise IndyRef2 in 2020. While the Tories are hostile to the plan, Labour has said it would not block it.
Sturgeon said she believes Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will grant her a Section 30 order, which would give Holyrood control, if he ousts Johnson.
IndyRef2 is complicated by Labour, the Lib Dems and SNP also supporting a referendum on any Brexit deal.
SNP critics believe a second Brexit referendum sets a precedent for having two further votes on independence – one on the principle and another on the deal struck if Yes prevailed. Asked whether, if Scotland voted for independence, there should also be a “confirmatory” referendum on the final deal, Sturgeon said yesterday: “No, I don’t believe we should equate the two things. I don’t believe that is an inevitable part of any democratic referendum process.”
The First Minister contrasted Brexit, whose backers had no formal plan for leaving the EU, with the first IndyRef, which was based on a white paper.
She said: “The problem with Brexit is that nobody was straight in advance of the referendum about what it meant. It wasn’t the kind of informed decision that the 2014 independence referendum was.”
She also said the issue of “who decides Scotland’s future is one of the central questions at this General Election”.
Sturgeon added: “Our future is on the line and it’s a choice of what kind of future we want.”
Asked if he would grant permission for an IndyRef2 ballot, Johnson said: “No, I don’t want to have one.”
Shadow cabinet minister Rebecca Long-Bailey said Labour “wouldn’t stand in the way” if the SNP pushed for IndyRef2.
NICOLA STURGEON ON NEED FOR 2ND VOTE