Sturgeon’s plea for patience is undermined by her deputy

NICOLA STURGEON yesterday pleaded with SNP members for patience over a second independence referendum after the party’s deputy leader contradicted her promise that a decision would only be made after the Brexit deal was known.

The First Minister used her keynote speech at the SNP conference in Glasgow to argue that she must “respect” the views of Scots who want clarity about leaving the EU before she makes a call on another separation vote.

But her attempt to impose her authority on those who are “impatient for change” was undermined by Angus Robertson, the SNP’S deputy leader, who won one of the loudest standing ovations of the day by promising there “will” be another referendum “as soon as we can”.

Her speech also received a less enthusiastic response than a tub-thumping address by Mhairi Black, the SNP’S most prominent rising star, who lambasted Nationalists who wanted to put independence “on the back burner”.

Ms Sturgeon’s struggle to hold her party together over a second referendum’s timing undercut her attempts to move the debate on to domestic policy.

In a series of Left-wing announcements, which seemed intended to outflank Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, she dropped strong hints she intends to increase income tax next year and rejected business warnings this would damage the economy. She also unveiled a plan to set up a not-for-profit energy company by 2021 that will offer lower prices for renewable electricity.

Nicola Sturgeon holds up a packet of cough sweets to SNP delegates during her keynote speech – a joke at Theresa May’s expense – but her message was overshadowed by more radical calls for independence from others