Sturgeon accused of ‘laundering’ votes for SNP cause

First Minister ‘bolstering bid for Scexit vote’

NICOLA Sturgeon has ‘laundered’ votes by claiming they bolster the case for another independence referendum, opposition leaders said yesterday.

The First Minister admitted some voters who backed her party do not support independence, but insisted they knew she would use their support to push for another referendum.

She spoke at a Holyrood session where she also came under fire for the use of ‘incendiary’ language, including her claim Scotland is ‘imprisoned’ in the UK.

Miss Sturgeon told MSPs that later this week she will ‘take the next steps to secure Scotland’s right to choose’.

She said her demand for the power to hold a referendum is ‘in line with repeated election mandates’.

Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon risks a major backlash from voters who gave her their support last week. She said that a vote for the SNP was a vote to stop Brexit. Not only has she not done that, she has now laundered every vote she received as a mandate for Indyref 2. This isn’t why many people backed the SNP last week.’

In the final stages of the campaign, the party mainly focused on its ‘Stop Brexit’ message, with many candidates failing to mention demands for a new referendum.

Despite this, Miss Sturgeon said the vote was an ‘endorsement’ of three messages: that Scotland doesn’t want Boris Johnson to be Prime Minister, opposes leaving the EU and wants ‘Scotland’s future to be in Scotland’s hands’.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie questioned whether all those backing the SNP supported another referendum and cited comments from new Nationalist MP Richard Thomson, who told voters he would never use their support to boost the case for it.

He said: ‘Does the First Minister see that the country has had enough of division and that we need to learn the lessons of Brexit, rather than repeat them with independence?

‘She has failed to persuade even half the country that there should be another referendum.’

Miss Sturgeon replied: ‘People understood the SNP’s proposition on offering people in Scotland a choice. We were clear about our policy.’

Scottish Tory Liam Kerr raised concerns about Finance Secretary Derek Mackay recently describing the UK as a ‘dictatorship’ and Miss Sturgeon saying Scotland is being ‘imprisoned’ in the UK.

He said: ‘Does she really believe that such incendiary, inappropriate and ill-considered language is appropriate in a liberal democracy such as that of the UK?’

Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, said: ‘[Nicola Sturgeon] is proposing to keep the focus of Government, parliament and the civil service on trying to get another unwanted, divisive referendum, when our public services are crumbling and in dire need of attention.’

‘She has failed to persuade country’