First Minister slams opposition unionist parties’ commitment to keeping Scotland under “Tory austerity”
FIRST MINISTER Nicola Sturgeon has slammed Scotland’s unionist parties for backing continued “Tory austerity” and challenged Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson to defended the right of the Scottish Parliament to call an independence referendum.
Attacked by unionist party leaders for her calling of a referendum, after months of attempts at compromise with a UK Tory Government dedicated to hard Brexit, Sturgeon announced the “band is well and truly back together” – referring to Scottish Tory, Labour and Liberal democrat joint efforts against independence in 2014.
Davidson said the first minister was neglecting the tasks of government by calling for another vote on independence and that the Conservatives were dedicated to the role of the Scottish Parliament, however, Sturgeon laid down a challenge to defend its rights.
She said: “So Ruth Davidson says she wants to put this parliament first. Well let me issue this challenge to Ruth Davidson and the Conservative party.
“If on Wednesday next week, this parliament votes for an independence referendum, to give the people of Scotland a choice over their own future, will the Conservatives respect the will of this parliament, or are the Conservatives running scared?” Nicola Sturgeon
“If on Wednesday next week, this parliament votes for an independence referendum, to give the people of Scotland a choice over their own future, will the Conservatives respect the will of this parliament, or are the Conservatives running scared?”
The Scottish Parliament has a pro-independence majority between SNP and Scottish Green MSPs. A successful vote for an independence referendum could lead the Scottish Parliament into a confrontation with UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who has said she does not want a Scottish vote held at a time when the UK is negotiating a hard exit from the EU.
Asserting the legitimacy of the democratic process in Scotland, Sturgeon added: “I was elected as first minister a year ago, with the highest constituency share of the vote in the history of devolution on a manifesto commitment that said this parliament should have a right to hold another referendum if the Tories try to drag us out of Europe against our will.”
“That 46 per cent share of the vote is ten per cent higher than the 36 per cent share that the tories used to have the EU referendum in the first place and we hear from the electoral commission this morning that the vote share they may have got in the 2015 election was rather dodgy.
A successful vote for an independence referendum could lead the Scottish Parliament into a confrontation with UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who has said she does not want a Scottish vote held at a time when the UK is negotiating a hard exit from the EU.
On the back of attacks from Davidson, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: “Does the First Minister intend to lead a government, or a campaign?”
Sturgeon retorted that Dugdale was committing the same mistakes as in 2014 and “simply supports the Conservatives”, leaving Scotland vulnerable to a future of UK Tory cuts, a position she described as “shameful”.
In a visit to Glasgow last week (11 March)UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Scotland has a right to hold a referendum on independence.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie accused Sturgeon of “sooking up to the Eurosceptics” in the independence movement, while using Brexit as an opportunity for another referendum. In response, Sturgeon said he was “sooking up to the Tories”, and that only independence could now allow Scotland to maintain its relationship with the EU.
The decision by Scottish Labour to join the Conservatives in the Better Together alliance in 2014 helped to destroy its support base among working class voters in Scotland. Unionist parties have not yet made their position clear on whether Scotland should have the right to hold a referendum if the public and parliament vote for one.
In response to comments from May that she felt it was the “wrong time” for an independence referendum, SNP MP Alex Salmond said this was “Panic from the prime minister…who wants to kick it into the long grass, because she thinks she’s going to lose it”.
In response to comments from May that she felt it was the “wrong time” for an independence referendum, SNP MP Alex Salmond said this was “Panic from the prime minister…who wants to kick it into the long grass, because she thinks she’s going to lose it”.
Picture: Scottish Parliament TV
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