Sturgeon ‘most divisive since Thatcher’

NICOLA Sturgeon was yesterday branded ‘the most divisive politician since Margaret Thatcher’.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard attacked the First Minister over her continued attempts to push for a second independence referendum.

Last year, Miss Sturgeon disclosed her plans for another vote on separation, claiming it was necessary after the UK-wide vote to leave the EU.

But she was forced to abandon the plans following a disappointing general election in which she lost 21 MPs. She now says she will decide whether or not to hold another referendum later this year after the terms of a Brexit deal are clear.

But Mr Leonard, speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland, said Miss Sturgeon’s plans had ‘sparked a real polarisation of opinion in Scotland’.

He added: ‘I’ve never witnessed, since the days of Margaret Thatcher, a political leader that was so divisive because of that call she has made for a second referendum. That’s why I think the SNP have been forced to row back from it.

‘I am there to represent the interests of the Scottish Labour Party and we have been clear that we do not see the case, within just a matter of years, for a second independence referendum.’

He added: ‘The people were asked their views in 2017 and they gave a very clear answer. So I’m absolutely firm on the question of whether there should be a second independence referendum or not – there should not be. There’s no case for it.’

An SNP spokesman said: ‘While the referendum on independence produced an outpouring of democratic debate about how we could empower ourselves to make Scotland fairer and more prosperous, the 19 0s demonstrated what can happen when those powers are left in the hands of a Westminster Tory government which Scotland did not vote for.

‘It is for Labour to explain why they choose the latter option.’