Now is definitely not the time
Wrangling over independence risks diverting attention from recovery, warns Gove as he calls for UK unity
NOW is the worst possible time to be talking about an independence referendum as Scotland battles back from the Covid pandemic, Michael Gove has insisted.
The Cabinet Office Minister said it was far more important for the UK and Scottish governments to ‘concentrate on the things that unite us’.
He warned ‘constitutional wrangling’ over a second independence referendum would get in the way of a successful recovery after a year of lockdown.
His comments come as Nicola Sturgeon said she could put legislation before MSPs as early as next year to bring forward a second vote on splitting from the UK.
Asked whether the Westminster Government would block a referendum, Mr Gove told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: ‘No, what we’re working on doing at the moment is working together to deal with all the challenges that we face across the whole United Kingdom.
‘If we get sucked into a conversation about referenda and constitutions then we are diverting attention from the issues that are most important to the people in Scotland and across the United Kingdom.
‘I hope that what people want from a Holyrood government, and also from the Westminster Government, is a commitment to work together on these issues.
‘So, instead of concentrating on the things that divide, let’s concentrate on the things that unite and let’s concentrate on all of us to work together to serve the people that just vote for us. It’s not an issue for the moment.’
Meanwhile, the First Minister was also accused of not having a ‘remotely credible case’ for an independent Scotland.
She was accused of being unable to ‘accept the reality’ after failing to answer a series of vital questions on how the country could break away from the Union.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Miss Sturgeon refused to accept that an independent Scotland would be immediately worse off.
The First Minister also admitted the country would not have key economic powers of its own under her plans to continue using the pound for ‘years’.
Miss Sturgeon conceded, however, that splitting up the UK would not be ‘challenge-free’.
But she said that her party would ‘lay out frankly the challenges an independent Scotland would face’ in advance of a second independence referendum.
She added: ‘I’m not saying it would be challenge-free, but it is absolutely the right thing for Scotland because it puts control over our future and the kind of country we become into our own hands.’
Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser last night said that despite her ‘obsession’ with breaking up the UK, the First Minister still did not know the answer to key questions.
Mr Fraser said: ‘Despite being obsessed over holding another independence referendum, Nicola Sturgeon still refuses to accept the reality of an independent Scotland. Her economic case for independence has never been weaker.
‘Families would either be hit by hammering tax rises or spending on public services would be slashed as a result of the Nationalist plans to break up our Union.
‘It simply isn’t credible for Nicola Sturgeon to try and say that an independent Scotland would retain access to the pound but simply then accept that they would have no input into major economic decisions.’
Mr Fraser added: ‘All our focus in the next parliament should be on our recovery and rebuilding our communities, rather than obsessing over breaking up our Union, without any remotely credible case for doing so.’
Under SNP plans, an independent Scotland would continue to use the pound after leaving the Union, but would then switch to a new currency.
This would be after six key tests are met, though the timeline for this is as yet undetermined.
However, yesterday Miss Sturgeon suggested this could be a ‘period of years’.
During this time, the currency would be tied to the Bank of England and Scotland would have no influence over interest rates.
Asked how long a newly independent Scotland would likely continue to use the pound, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Well, I think that is likely to be a period of years.’
She added: ‘You know, I’m often accused of wanting to talk about nothing but independence. It’s not true but I have absolutely the appetite to talk about these things.
‘But it is right and proper that, as happened in 2014, the case for independence and all of the different issues that have to be confronted would be set out openly and clearly to people.
‘But some of what is described, “Oh you’d have no control over this, that or the other”, that’s how life feels for people in Scotland right now. We’ve just been taken out of the European Union.’
Miss Sturgeon stressed that prior to any referendum ‘the case for independence and all of the different issues that have to be con
‘It’s not an issue for the moment’ ‘She refuses to accept reality’
fronted would be set out openly and clearly to people’.
Miss Sturgeon was also pushed on the fiscal transfer to Scotland under current arrangements in the Union. This sees Scotland receive £1,671 or 17 per cent more per person than the UK average.
Asked by Mr Marr about the country being effectively subsidised by English taxpayers’ and this ending after independence, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Well, I don’t accept that characterisation.
‘Scotland pays its taxes in the same way as people in England pay their taxes. What you call the fiscal transfer is funded largely by borrowing by the UK Government right now, because the Scottish Government doesn’t have powers to borrow.’
She did ‘not accept that Scotland as an independent country would be poorer’, but said Scots would ‘have to manage our finances like any other independent country’.