Sturgeon on a referendum: “I don’t think David Cameron has any right to rule it out”
FIRST MINISTER Nicola Sturgeon has said that David Cameron does not have “any right” to rule out a second referendum on Scottish independence.
David Cameron said on Sunday after his election victory that “there isn’t going to be another referendum” on Scottish independence.
He added: “We had the referendum and the SNP aren’t pushing for another referendum, actually. Nicola Sturgeon said that vote in the General Election was not about another referendum.
“Now what we need to do is bring the United Kingdom together. We are going to do that by delivering the devolution settlement in Wales, delivering the devolution settlement in Scotland, keeping all the pledges that were made.” (Click here to read more).
Responding to Cameron’s comments on an episode of ITV’s Loose Women on Monday, the First Minister played down the likelihood of holding another referendum in the near future, but said that only the people of Scotland could decide if there was a mandate for a second referendum, not the Prime Minister.
She said: “Why I stop short of saying I guarantee it, it’s the same reason that I don’t think David Cameron has any right to rule it out. Whether there’s another referendum or not is down to what people in Scotland want. There can’t be another referendum unless people vote for it.”
The First Minister has said there is a “triple lock” on Scottish independence:
1) Circumstances would have to change “materially”, the example cited being a UK exit from the EU
2) A referendum would have to be in the SNP’s manifesto for the 2016 Scottish elections
3) A majority would have to vote for independence in a legally binding referendum (click here to read more)
Ruth Davidson, Scottish Tory leader, said in a pre-election debate on the BBC that if a party was elected to be the Scottish Government in 2016 on a mandate for a referendum, she couldn’t foresee circumstances in which the Tories would use its power at Westminster to block it.
Spokespeople at Tory party headquarters at UK and Scottish level confirmed prior to the election to CommonSpace that Davidson’s stance was the position of the party, however the Scottish Tories spokesperson added: “We can’t just have a situation where the SNP keeps calling referendums until it manages to win one.” (Click here to read more).
Former SNP MP Jim Sillars described Cameron’s stance as akin to the attitude of a “new colonial governor”, and has previously said that a referendum will be “the first line” of the party’s 2016 manifesto (click here to read more), a statement which was rebuked by Sturgeon.
The First Minister was speaking in London as the new cohort of SNP MPs travelled to London for their first day. CommonSpace spoke exclusively to SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie at Westminster about the challenges the 56 nationalist MPs faced in the House of Commons.
Picture courtesy of First Minister of Scotland