SNP leader ‘shameless’ over new push to break up the UK
Sturgeon will demand next Tory PM gives her Indyref 2
NICOLA Sturgeon was last night branded ‘shameless’ for claiming the European election result boosts the case for separation.
The SNP leader insisted Brexit will spark the break-up of the UK and suggested the second half of next year is the ‘right time’ for another independence referendum.
She is expected to publish legislation for a second vote this week – and could make a new demand to the next UK Conservative leader to give her the power to hold one.
But Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said she expects all candidates in the race to succeed Theresa May to pledge to reject any new demand for another vote.
Miss Sturgeon was criticised for using the election result to push the case for independence despite last week directly appealing to pro-Union voters by telling them to vote SNP to send a message about Brexit ‘whether you’re for or against independence’.
The SNP secured 37.7 per cent of the vote in Scotland and won three of the six MEP seats.
Speaking in Dublin yesterday after the result was confirmed, the First Minister said: ‘The message from Scotland today is that we will not accept a Brexit process that silences our nation, that treats our parliament and Government with contempt and that fails to represent the interests of people in Scotland.
‘If all Westminster has to offer is more chaos and confusion – potentially under the premiership of an extreme Tory Brexiteer – then more and more people will come to the conclusion that Scotland’s future is best served as an independent country.’
During an interview at the Royal Irish Academy, Miss Sturgeon was asked if Brexit would lead to the break-up of the UK. She replied: ‘Yes’. Asked how that makes her feel, she said: ‘Good.’
On the timing of another vote, she said: ‘I want to see Scotland having the choice of independence within this term of the Scottish parliament, which ends in May 2021, so towards the latter half of next year would be when I think is the right time for that choice.’
Earlier, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford told BBC Breakfast that Scotland being ‘dragged out of the EU’ would mean the UK Government ‘has to recognise that the Scottish National Party has a mandate for an independence referendum and we need to be able to secure our own future as a European nation’.
Nationalist MEP Alyn Smith admitted that pro-Union voters and those ‘from all points of the compass’ had backed his party in the European elections. But he added: ‘Independence is absolutely in the mix and was part of this election discussion. It is part of the discussion and it is right that it should be because Scotland has other options on this.’
New Nationalist MEP Christian Allard said: ‘We have always been very clear on what we stand for: independence in Europe. So absolutely there’s a bigger case for it now.’
Pamela Nash, chief executive of the Scotland in Union campaign group, said: ‘The SNP is utterly shameless.
‘Nicola Sturgeon appealed to pro-UK voters to back her in this election but as soon as the votes are counted the SNP reverts to type and claims a fresh mandate for an unwanted and divisive second independence referendum.’
The Conservatives held on to their one seat in Scotland, despite the party’s share of the vote falling to 11.6 per cent.
Miss Davidson yesterday admitted her party took ‘a kicking all across the UK’ because of Brexit, as ‘the public takes a very dim view of politicians who don’t keep their promises’. She said the Brexit Party had benefited from frustration about the delayed exit but vowed to persuade those who deserted her party to return for the 2021 Holyrood election.
She added: ‘What my job is as leader of the main opposition party in Scotland is to be able to go out between now and the next election, the Holyrood election, and say if you want rid of the Nationalist Government you have to unite behind one pro-Union government – and that has got to be us.
‘The SNP are the only party that benefits when the pro-Union vote splits in the way it did in this election.’
Mrs May rejected Miss Sturgeon’s last demand for a ‘Section 30 order’ to hold another independence referendum and had pledged to do so again.
Miss Davidson yesterday said she expects all candidates to succeed Mrs May to make a similar pledge, adding: ‘To be honest, I would probably expect them to do that. We’ve yet to see the manifestos from any of them, so in terms of what they bring forward, let me judge it when it comes. But I can’t imagine there will be any of them that are running to grant it.’
She said she continues to have discussions with declared candidates and those preparing to declare. Asked if she wanted opposition to a Section 30 order to be maintained after the next Holyrood election, no matter the result, she said: ‘I am going to continue to campaign against a further referendum because Scotland was promised that it was going to be a once in a generation vote.
‘In fact, Nicola Sturgeon said at one point it would be once in a lifetime.’
Miss Davidson also dismissed any prospect of the Scottish Tories splitting from the UK party. She said: ‘I have never agreed with that, I have been perfectly honest about that from the start. And it is not a decision for the leader, it is a decision for the membership. We have asked the membership three times and each time they have said they want to remain part of the
‘Unwanted and divisive’ ‘It was a once in a generation vote’
UK party and that is something I support and I’ve advanced.’
On Miss Sturgeon’s response to the result, Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: ‘She made it clear that people who were in favour of the United Kingdom could vote for the SNP with no fear of that vote being misused.
‘So I hope she is sticking to what she said. She tried to say everybody who voted Remain in Scotland in the EU referendum was indicating support for independence and she misjudged that – she shouldn’t misjudge this as well.
‘This is about stopping Brexit, that is the top priority, that is the crisis ahead of us.’
Graham Grant – Page 18