Most feel Indyref2 ‘unlikely’ next year

MOST Scots don’t believe Nicola Sturgeon’s plan for a second independence referendum will happen.

The First Minister has insisted she intends to hold Indyref2 late next year, despite PM Boris Johnson refusing to grant Holyrood the necessary powers to do so.

In an interview with The National yesterday, Ms Sturgeon said she was sticking to that.

“I’ve set the timetable. Nothing has changed in terms of the timetable I’ve set,” she said.

However a Savanta Comres poll for the Scotsman found voters were sceptical.

It found 53 per cent of Scots felt it “unlikely” a referendum would be held by the end of 2023, with only 39% saying it was “likely”.

Barely half of the SNP’S own voters (57%) thought their leader’s timetable was realistic, with 37% suggesting it was unlikely, and 12% stating it was “very unlikely”.

Ms Sturgeon has said that if the Prime Minister continues to block Indyref2, she will pass a Referendum Bill at Holyrood without Westminster’s consent.

The legislation would almost certainly be challenged at the UK Supreme Court and probably struck down as incompetent, as the

Union is an issue wholly reserved to Westminster.

Scotland’s Information Commissioner has told the Scottish Government to release some of the legal advice it received on Indyref2 in 2020.

However Ms Sturgeon has refused to rule out challenging that decision in court in order to keep the legal advice secret, in keeping with convention.

Campaigning in Edinburgh for the local elections after FMQS, Ms Sturgeon was asked about the poll and said she was sticking to the 2023 timetable for her vote.

The SNP leader said: “That’s the plan I put to the Scottish people in the Holyrood election last year. That’s the plan we continue to work towards.”