‘Detached from reality!’ SNP’s new indyref Bill
They unveil draft legislation... amid pandemic
THE SNP was accused of being ‘detached from reality’ yesterday after it launched a fresh bid to hold a separation vote by the end of 2023.
The Scottish Government yesterday published a draft Referendum Bill which sets out that another vote on tearing Scotland out of the UK should take place ‘within the first half of the next parliamentary term’.
It also asserts that the same question should be asked as was on the ballot paper in 2014, and that tens of thousands of foreign nationals should be given a vote.
But powers to hold a referendum and decide on the franchise are reserved to Westminster – and the UK Government said it is a ‘distraction’ to even consider another vote during a pandemic.
Ministers were also heavily criticised for forcing civil servants to write the draft legislation rather than work on the response to the virus.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: ‘It is beyond the comprehension of most Scots that Nicola Sturgeon considers this to be a priority. Scotland continues to be gripped by the global pandemic and even once normality slowly returns, the shockwaves will be felt for years... Sturgeon and her ministers have become detached from reality.’
The draft Referendum Bill was published ahead of tomorrow’s final sitting of parliament before the election.
A foreword to the Bill by Constitution Secretary Mike Russell claims the Government has been ‘laser-focused’ on tackling the pandemic. But it said the people of Scotland should ‘have the right to decide how Scotland recovers from the pandemic’.
It says that if there is a majority in the Scottish parliament after the election for this Bill ‘there can be no democratic justification whatsoever for any Westminster Government to seek to block a post-pandemic referendum’.
Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said: ‘Publishing a draft Referendum Bill is simply irresponsible. It is a distraction – we need to focus on continuing to tackle the pandemic and rebuilding our economy.’
The draft Bill states that the question of a referendum should be the same as in 2014 – ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?’ – with voters asked to answer either yes or no, because it ‘continues to be well understood by the Scottish public’.
But it says the Electoral Commission would need to test the question – and it previously backed a Leave/ Remain question for the 2016 EU referendum rather than a question about whether Britain should exit the EU.
A further proposal is to give the vote to all foreign nationals with leave to remain in Scotland, which would see around 60,000 people being added to the electoral roll.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: ‘Dozens of civil servants could have been planning to get cancer services running full speed but they’ve been ordered to do this instead. We should put recovery first and bin this Bill.’
Mr Russell said: ‘It should be for the next parliament to decide the timing of the referendum. So the recovery from the pandemic can be made in Scotland, the Scottish Government believes it should be held in the first half of the new parliamentary term.
‘If there is a majority in parliament after the forthcoming election for an independence referendum there can be no democratic justification for any Westminster government to seek to block a post-pandemic referendum.’
‘Recovery first... bin this Bill’