Starmer is accused of ‘cosying up to SNP’ over indy stance

LABOUR’S UK leader is under pressure to rule out his party’s support for a second independence referendum after warning he will “assess the situation” after May’s election.

Sir Keir Starmer was accused of “cosying up to the SNP” after being pressed on the constitution during a visit to Edinburgh yesterday.

The UK Labour leader insisted the focus should remain on the pandemic recovery, as he called for the Scottish Government to draw up plans to resurrect the aviation industry amid concerns the sector has no route back to operation.

Sir Keir travelled north of the Border as a poll placed support for Labour at the lowest level since he took up the reins, with the Conservatives now enjoying a 14-point lead in the Uk-wide study.

Labour is facing a headache over the constitution with another study revealing the majority of the party’s supporters Uk-wide approve the “principle” of a second independence referendum being held in the next five years.

But Sir Keir has stressed a “divisive” referendum is not a priority.

NICOLA Sturgeon has admitted the figures in the SNP’S economic blueprint for independence are now “completely out of date” despite demanding a second referendum before updating them.

The First Minister conceded the party’s 2018 Growth Commmission, written before both the Covid pandemic and the final Brexit deal, was no longer reliable.

However she also said there would be no new analysis conducted until the eve of Indyref2.

In an interview with Channel 4 News, she said: “While the underlying approach of the Growth Commission is one that I fully endorse and sign up to, the figures in it are completely out of date.

“Since that was published we’ve undergone a global pandemic, the fiscal position of the UK and most countries across the world has been turned upside down.”

The Scottish Tories accused her of a “dangerous and dishonest” failure on the economics of leaving the UK.

Commissioned in the wake of the 2016 Brexit vote, the Sustainable Growth Commission was written by former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson.

It angered many in the SNP with its caution, its emphasis on spending restraint and deficit reduction in the first decade after independence, and its hesitancy over a new currency.

Boris Johnson has refused to grant Indyref2, saying the No vote of 2014 should stand for a generation, which he has defined as around 40 years.

However, the SNP manifesto for the Holyrood election says the party would try to hold it by the end of 2023, Covid permitting, if re-elected.

It also says a Yes vote would mean an independent Scotland rejoining the European Union to “escape from Brexit”.

Because of Brexit, Scottish re-entry to Europe would mean a hard economic border with England, because that border would also be an external EU border.

A recent LSE study suggested an independent Scotland cost face extra trade costs of between 15 and 30 per cent with the rest of the UK because of such a border.

Asked if she had conducted an analysis of the economic consequences of independence, Ms Sturgeon said: “When we put the choice of independence before the Scottish people in a referendum, we will do what we did in 2014.

“We will set out a prospectus, we will do the analysis at that point, and we’ll let people decide.”

She said the LSE report was a “very narrowly based assessment and didn’t take account of the wider benefits of independence to Scotland’s economy”.

Tory Murdo Fraser said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s failure to provide basic information about the costs of independence are typical of an

SNP mindset in which blind faith eclipses economics. She knows she cannot provide an honest economic blueprint because it would destroy support for separation.”

Scottish Libdems election chairman Alistair Carmichael said: “The SNP failed to set out a credible economic prospectus in 2014 and now it is doing it again.”