Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, launches a new independence drive on Friday, asking supporters to engage in the country’s “biggest ever political listening exercise” so she can gauge support for a fresh referendum.
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The bill would then be ready for “immediate” introduction if it becomes clear that there was voter support for Scottish independence, Sturgeon said, without giving a timeframe.
The SNP has pushed for Scottish independence for years and Sturgeon was an instrumental figure during the last referendum campaign and vote, when she was deputy first minister of Scotland under Alex Salmond’s leadership.
While she accepted that opting to leave the United Kingdom “would be a big decision”, the First Minister said: “I believe it is right that our party does now lead a new conversation on independence”.
In order to measure public interest in revisiting the independence question, the Scottish National Party (SNP) plans to conduct research to measure public opinion on the topic by conducting doorstep interviews and surveys with two million of Scotland’s 5.3 million population by the end of November.
“People don’t want to hear more tub-thumping on independence, they want to know she is focused on the day job the SNP has neglected for so long”.
“If you look at some of the results that are now coming out of polling in Scotland, they suggest the Scottish people don’t want there to be a second referendum”.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: “The SNP government today has the opportunity to lay a Programme for Government before the most powerful Scottish Parliament ever”.
Critics have also urged her government to acknowledge the change in economic circumstances, with a plummeting oil price fuelling a £15billion deficit – even bigger than Greece’s.
The Scottish First Minister has now spoken publicly about her agony after she lost the baby in the early stages of her pregnancy in 2011.
“We are determined to build an economy where everyone has a fair chance to contribute to growth and where everyone can share in the benefits of growth”.
Sturgeon has a de facto majority in Scotland’s parliament regarding independence because the Scottish Greens support her on that issue.
She said she hoped allowing her story to be shared in a new book might challenge assumptions and judgements made about women who do not have children.
“I believe it is right that our party does now lead a new conversation on independence”.
Party leader Ruth Davidson said: “Nicola Sturgeon has shown today that she is prepared to ignore the priorities of the people of Scotland, in pursuit of her own narrow nationalist agenda”. It is utterly unjustified and unnecessary.
Labour now find themselves in third place behind the Conservatives.
Scots do not want another referendum on independence before Britain leaves the European Union – and would vote “no” if one were held, according to a Times poll. The UK government is responsible for Scotland’s membership of the European Union and for foreign affairs so obviously the UK government is going to take the lead in the negotiations in relation to our position in the EU.
Ms Sturgeon said she would only turn to the option of independence if that initiative failed.
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In an emotional interview, Sturgeon spoke to Scottish National Party Leaders author Mandy Rhodes about the miscarriage for the first time. “Scotland’s fiscal position is not a verdict on independence – it is an indictment of generations of Westminster government”.
