Sturgeon to go ahead with bid for vote this year despite PM saying no
Analysis Gina Davidson
Nicola Sturgeon will still seek to stage a fresh referendum on Scottish independence this year, despite Boris Johnson formally rejecting the move yesterday.
The Tory Prime Minister ruled out a transfer of power to allow a second referendum, insisting it would continue the “political stagnation” of the past decade that has accompanied the debate about independence.
In a letter to Ms Sturgeon yesterday, the Prime Minister said: “I cannot agree to any request for a transfer of power that would lead to further independence referendums.” The Scottish Government has called the refusal “unsustainable” after the SNP’S landslide victory north of the Border in last month’s election.
Constitutional relations Secretary Michael Russell told STV’S Representing Border: “I think a referendum next year is the right thing to do.
“I intend to deliver it because it’s the right thing to do. And it’s the right thing to do because it ends the uncertainty. It’s really important the uncertainty comes to an end.”
He added: “We intend to give the people of Scotland the opportunity to choose.”
A spokesman for the First Minister also made it clear yesterday the Scottish Government
remained committed to a referendum this year.
“That’s our intention – that’s what people voted for in the election,” he said.
Mr Johnson said both Ms Sturgeon and her predecessor Alex Salmond pledged the 2014 referendum would be “once-in-a-generation” event.
“The people of Scotland voted decisively on that promise to keep our United Kingdom together, a result which both the Scottish and UK governments committed to respect in the Edinburgh Agreement,” the Prime Minister said.
“The UK government will continue to uphold the democratic decision of the Scottish people and the promise that you made to them.”
Mr Johnson’s letter added: “Another independence referendum would continue the political stagnation that Scotland has seen for the last decade, with Scottish schools, hospitals and jobs again left behind because of a campaign to separate the UK.”
Ms Sturgeon made the request for a transfer of power, via a so-called Section 30 order, which would allow Holyrood to stage a second referendum in the aftermath of the SNP’S election landslide victory north of the Border last month. It is necessary because Westminster has control over the constitution. The First Minister had also demanded that power to stage referendums be permanently transferred to Holyrood.
But Ms Sturgeon insisted the UK government’s position would not hold.
“The Tories are terrified of Scotland having the right to choose our own future,” she said.
“They know that, given the choice, the overwhelming likelihood is that people will choose the positive option of independence.
“The Tories – and their allies in the leaderships of Labour and the Lib Dems – lack any positive case for the Union, so all they can do is try to block democracy. It shows utter contempt for the votes, views and interests of the people of Scotland and it is a strategy that is doomed to failure.
“The problem for the UK government is that the longer they try to block a referendum, the more they demonstrate that the Westminster union is not a partnership of equals and the more support for independence will grow.
“It will also mean for the Tories that the loss of half of their seats suffered at the recent general election – fought by them on the sole issue of opposition to an independence referendum – will be only the start of their road back to political oblivion in Scotland.”
Where to next for the Scottish indyref movement? The options on the table for the SNP
Boris Johnson has, unsurprisingly, rejected Nicola Sturgeon’s latest request for a second independence referendum.
Indeed the First Minister yesterday said the Prime Minister’s response was “predictable”, though she also called it “unsustainable and self defeating”.
Her response was rather less clear on what the SNP believes it will now be able to do – aside from having a vote in Holyrood to affirm “Scotland’s right to choose”, which will receive the backing of at least the Scottish Greens.
But her options are few. On Monday, two highly respected constitutional academics, Professor Aileen Mcharg and Chris Mccorkindale, laid out why a legal challenge would be unlikely to succeed, should it end up in court.