GOVE WARNS: NO VOTE FOR 5 YEARS
Scots being ‘imprisoned in UK’, says Sturgeon as Tories rule out Indyref 2
THE new Tory Government will ‘absolutely’ not grant an independence referendum during its five-year term, a senior minister has said.
Michael Gove said there is no scenario in which a rerun of the 2014 vote would be allowed.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster added that Boris Johnson’s administration would focus on spreading ‘economic opportunity across the United Kingdom’.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon condemned the UK Government’s ‘dictatorial attitude’ and said Scotland cannot be ‘imprisoned in the Union against our will’.
The Tories won a huge majority on a manifesto that included a pledge to respect the result of the 2014 referendum and ‘move on from uncertainty and division’.
But Miss Sturgeon stepped up her demand for another vote after the SNP won 48 seats and 45 per cent of the vote in Scotland.
Speaking on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme on Sky News yesterday, Mr Gove pointed out that a number of SNP candidates ‘scarcely mentioned independence’ during the election campaign.
He said: ‘In this General Election we have just seen what happens when politicians try to overturn a referendum result and in the same way we should respect the referendum result of 2014.
‘Scotland is stronger in the United Kingdom; you can be proudly Scottish and proudly British together.’
Pressed on whether his ‘guarantee’ not to allow Indyref 2 will apply for the whole term ‘no matter what happens in the Scottish parliamentary elections’, he said: ‘We were told in 2014 that that would be a choice for a generation, we are not going to have an independence referendum in Scotland.’
Mr Gove said Thursday’s Queen’s Speech will set out measures to spread economic growth across the UK, adding: ‘We need to invest in the infrastructure and the improvement for skills and education necessary in order to make sure that opportunity is more equal.’
Miss Sturgeon will this week publish a paper setting out the ‘detailed democratic case’ for the transfer of powers to hold a referendum.
Recent polls suggest Scots support remaining in the Union, while 55 per cent of voters north of the Border backed pro-Union parties in last week’s election.
Mr Johnson told the First Minister in a telephone conversation on Friday that he would ‘stand with the majority of people in Scotland’ and oppose a referendum. On the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Miss Sturgeon claimed that a ‘dictatorial attitude’ will not hold.
She said: ‘If he thinks that saying no is the end of the matter, he is going to find himself completely and utterly wrong.
‘You cannot hold Scotland in the Union against its will... if the UK is to continue, it can only be by consent and if Boris Johnson is confident in the case for the Union, he should be confident enough to make that case and allow people to decide.’ She added: ‘Scotland cannot be imprisoned in the United Kingdom against its will.’
Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw said that ‘talk of Scotland being “imprisoned” in the UK now suggests Nicola Sturgeon is losing the plot’ and ‘this is the kind of language favoured by the wilder fringes of the Nationalist movement, not a First Minister who claims to speak for the centre ground’.
He added: ‘Scotland needs a First Minister with her eye on the job, not a Nationalist rabble-rouser.’
‘A Nationalist rabble-rouser’