Battle for new Scexit vote may end up in court

NICOLA Sturgeon will consider launching a court battle with Boris Johnson if he rejects her attempt to hold a Scexit referendum.

The SNP leader yesterday confirmed that ‘all options will be considered’ if another demand for the power to hold a rerun of the 2014 vote is turned down.

Her comments come only a day after one of her ministers said a legal battle is ‘likely’ if the SNP’s push for another vote is rejected.

Critics said the comment proves Miss Sturgeon ‘will stop at nothing to take Scotland back to an extended period of division and uncertainty’.

Miss Sturgeon made the remarks as she stepped up the SNP’s bid to capitalise on the controversy around Tory Ross Thomson, who stood down from Aberdeen South following groping allegations from a fellow MP.

Brexit Secretary Michael Russell said last week it is ‘likely’ the Scottish Government could seek ‘redress through the courts’ if a request for the Section 30 order to hold another vote is rejected.

Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I don’t think Indyref 2 should be refused if the SNP keeps winning elections on the back of that commitment.

‘I’m focused just now on winning as many votes as possible to send the clearest possible message to the people of Scotland.

‘It is unacceptable and unsustainable for Westminster governments to block that and if they continue to do that then all options will be considered.’

During a visit to the NorthEast last week, the Prime Minister gave a cast-iron assurance that he will not allow another divisive independence vote – even in the event that the SNP wins a majority in the 2021 Holyrood election.

Another showdown in the courts between the two governments could come at huge cost to taxpayers.

Kirstene Hair, Conservative candidate for Angus, said: ‘This shows Nicola Sturgeon will stop at nothing to take Scotland back to an extended period of division and uncertainty.

‘Scots don’t want another independence referendum, and the Scottish Conservatives are the only ones who will ensure it doesn’t happen.

‘The SNP Government needs to stop with the constitutional stunts and concentrate on running the country.

‘Scotland has suffered because of the Nationalists’ misguided priorities for the past 12 years, and it can’t afford to do so any longer.’

Miss Sturgeon visited the

Aberdeen South constituency just over a week after Mr Thomson said he would not stand for re-election.

He announced the decision after Labour MP Paul Sweeney went public with bombshell allegations that he was groped by Mr Thomson in a House of Commons bar.

The SNP has selected local councillor Stephen Flynn to try to win back the seat from the Tories, who last week named Aberdeen City Council leader Douglas Lumsden as their candidate.

Miss Sturgeon insisted the controversy still did not make the seat an easy gain for the SNP. She said: ‘There’s no such thing as an easy SNP gain in an election. Any party that thinks constituencies are easy to win doesn’t deserve to win. The SNP will be campaigning hard, fighting for every single vote. And that’s regardless of who the opponent candidate is.

‘We’ve got a very strong candidate here. In politics, you don’t get to control your opponents or what they do and say. The only thing in politics you can have any control over is your own campaign and the messages and candidates you field.’

Miss Sturgeon joined Mr Flynn to meet elderly residents playing bingo at Inchgarth Community Centre in the Garthdee area of the city.

Her visit came as Nigel Farage announced that his Brexit Party would not stand in any Tory-held seats across the UK.

Responding to the announcement, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I think Nigel Farage has clearly got the Conservative Party exactly where he wants them and I think that should be of huge concern to people across Scotland.

‘I imagine there are many traditional Tory voters that are appalled to see their party effectively merge into the Brexit Party.

‘Nigel Farage and Boris Johnston are clearly joined at the hip and if you vote Tory, you get the world view and the policy of Nigel Farage.

‘Any Brexit that is acceptable to Nigel Farage is almost by definition deeply damaging to Scotland.

‘It really crystallises the message that the SNP is putting forward. If you don’t want our future to be determined by Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, then we’ve got to take that future into our own hands and be the country that we want to be.’

‘No control over opponents’

WHAT does a government do if the voters refuse to accept its core policy – and indeed reject it in an official referendum?

In the SNP’s case, five years after the majority of Scots voted against independence, the answer is obvious: litigate. Nicola Sturgeon has made clear ‘all options’ are on the table if her latest demand for a Scexit vote is dismissed by Downing Street.

She knows that if Boris Johnson wins next month, her Section 30 request for a rerun of the 2014 referendum will be thrown out. And inevitably the bill for the ensuing legal battle – doubtless a sizeable one – would be picked up not by the SNP but by the taxpayer.

Voters are the only true arbiter of our constitutional future and they made their views clear in 2014.

Their judgment on the SNP’s obduracy is likely to be equally harsh when the polls open on December 12.