Oh so frosty! Secrets of Nicola and PM’s talk-in
THEREsA May yesterday insisted she won’t change her mind about rejecting calls for an independence referendum after showdown talks with Nicola sturgeon.
The Prime Minister reasserted that ‘now is not the time’ to even discuss the possibility of holding a vote which could break up Britain.
Her comments mean there is no chance of the UK Government allowing a rerun of the 2014 separation vote in the First Minister’s preferred timescale – between the autumn of 2018 and the spring of 2019.
And in a further sign of Westminster’s uncompromising stance, Brexit secretary David Davis will today reject Miss sturgeon’s demand for scotland to be granted its own Brexit deal, including control over immigration.
The sNP leader claimed there was no ‘rational’ argument to oppose a referendum and told the Prime Minister directly that the only question remaining is ‘how’ a referendum takes place.
Miss sturgeon is expected to win majority support for her referendum plan today at Holyrood and will then write to the Prime Minister within days to demand the power to hold a vote.
Mrs May and Miss sturgeon met for talks in a Glasgow hotel yesterday as the Prime Minister visited scotland to talk about the benefits of leaving the EU.
The two leaders, who have engaged in a public slanging match over independence in recent weeks, could barely disguise the ill-feeling between them during the awkward encounter.
In a sign of the tense relations between the pair, they shunned the traditional public handshake and media access was limited to a single photographer.
Miss sturgeon’s demand to keep scotland in the European single market will be formally rejected by UK ministers today.
Mr Davis will write to the sNP leader to reject the call to remain in the single market when the rest of the UK leaves after Brexit, and will rule out any prospect of the scottish Government being given powers over immigration.
In December, Miss sturgeon published scotland’s Place in Europe, which set out three options: the UK remains in the single market; scotland remains when the UK leaves; or there is an independence referendum.
It is understood Mr Davis will emphasise areas of common ground, including security, rights for EU nationals and workers’ rights.
speaking during a visit to East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, yesterday, Mrs May insisted: ‘My position is very simple and it hasn’t changed. It is that now is not the time to be talking about a second independence referendum and that’s for a couple of reasons.
‘First of all, now is the point when we are triggering Article 50, we’re starting negotiations for leaving the European Union. Now is the time when we should be pulling together, not hanging apart. Pulling together to make sure we get the best possible deal for the whole of the UK.
‘Also, I think it would be unfair on the people of scotland to ask them to make a significant decision until all the facts were known.’
Mrs May also said that she would not enter into negotiations about when a referendum could take place.
Following yesterday’s meeting, Miss sturgeon claimed she received ‘no real guarantee’ that powers coming from Brussels in devolved areas won’t be ‘centralised at Westminster’ and claimed there was ‘no real willingness’ to talk about powers beyond that.
Regarding independence, Miss sturgeon said: ‘she said that she had made her position clear.
‘I said I understood that, but in my view it was not a question of “if”, it was a question of “how” and we would be in touch later in the week.’
she also claimed that Mrs May was ‘adamant’ that the terms of Brexit and the detail of a comprehensive free trade agreement with Europe ‘will be clear before the UK exits the EU’.
Miss sturgeon said: ‘I think she has a perfectly rational opposition to a referendum now, which is why I am not proposing it. But I think, based on the discussion today, I would struggle to see what her rational opposition to it would be in the timescale that we’ve been talking about.’
she added: ‘If their position remains as it is now, I will then set out to parliament what the next steps will be.’
Earlier, Mrs May described the nations of the United Kingdom as an ‘unstoppable force’.
In a speech to staff in the UK government’s international development office in East Kilbride, she said: ‘As we face this great national moment together, I hope you will continue to play your part in the great national effort we need to build the stronger Britain, the fairer Britain, the more outward-looking Britain and the more united Britain that I am determined we should be once we emerge from this period of national change.’
A Downing street source said the Prime Minister updated Miss sturgeon about the Article 50 process formally triggering Brexit in a ‘courteous and friendly way’.
He said that the First Minister raised the issue of a section 30 order to hold an independence referendum ‘briefly’ at the end of the meeting, but added: ‘The PM’s view is well known on this issue.’
‘No real willingness to talk’
IN the traditional pre-meeting photograph, it seems a picture really can paint a thousand words.
Two body language experts have given their verdicts on what Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon were really feeling at yesterday’s head to head.
Robert Phipps highlighted the extreme differences in the body language of the two leaders.
He said: ‘In most political photocalls like this one, the two are supposed to mirror and match one another to show just how wonderfully they get on – but not here.
‘Sturgeon has her left leg crossed away from May with her fingers interlocked, which makes her left arm a barrier. May has her feet firmly planted on the ground. That can mean an entrenched position.
‘Interlocked fingers usually indicates a lack of openness, but are matched by May’s interlocked fingers, so never the twain shall meet on this occasion.
‘Although both are dressed in the white and blue colours of Scotland, that’s where the similarities end.
‘Sturgeon is not smiling, her mouth is most definitely tight-lipped shut. May is smiling, although it is not a warm, genuine smile. It’s fixed – more like a grimace.’
The politicians’ facial expressions also fascinated another body language expert, Drew McAdam.
He said: ‘The smiles tell a lot. When smiling, we flex the muscles around the mouth. But a “mouth smile” is not a genuine smile.
‘A real smile involves the muscles around the eyes, which contract, creating crow’s feet.
He said both women displayed a ‘PanAm smile’ named after the fake grins flashed by air hostesses as passengers leave an aircraft.
He added: ‘May looks as though she was amused by something as the photo was taken but, even so, there is no contraction of muscles around the eyes, and her smile is not in keeping with the stiff posture.’
The PanAm smiles that betray true feelings...