Johnson’s Indyref2 stance is ‘fading’

POLLING expert John Curtice has claimed Boris Johnson’s arguments against holding a second independence referendum will soon “wash away”.

The Strathclyde University professor predicts that the “game of chess” over any referendum will start “by this time next year”.

He also said Nicola Sturgeon will face increased pressure from supporters if she doesn’t succeed in pushing Boris Johnson into agreeing a second vote.

Speaking to the Daily Express, Prof Curtice said: “If the pandemic is coming towards an end, and the UK Government seemed to be among the cheerleaders to saying that the pandemic is coming to the end, then the arguments you can’t hold a referendum anytime soon because of the pandemic will wash away.

“They’ll particularly wash away so far as the UK Government won’t be able to pursue that argument anymore because of its own stance on the subject that ‘we’re waiting to see and it’s all very much uncertain, we wait to see what happens during the winter’.

“But certainly, by this time next year, the reasonable bet is the pandemic will no longer be a significant strain on social and political life.

“At that point, the game of chess starts and we wait to see where the polls are at when the game of chess starts.”

“And we wait to see how the game of chess is played. But it’s a complicated game of chess.”

The polling guru also likened Ms Sturgeon’s internal pressure to what Mr Johnson faced over Brexit.

He added: “It will be as impossible for Nicola Sturgeon not to pursue a referendum as it would have been for Johnson not to have pursued Brexit after December 2019. They are both hidebound by very particular electorates that have a very particular view.”