Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has launched a major new survey on independence, arguing that the Brexit vote had change the conditions that existed when Scotland voted against secession two years ago.
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The Scottish Nationalist leader said that repeated polls since the vote had shown increased support for independence.
Sturgeon, who took over from Alex Salmond as leader of the SNP in 2014, said she was not sure she would have become First Minister if she had not miscarried.
But immediately after the Brexit vote in June this year, which saw Scots vote to stay in the European Union while the United Kingdom opted to leave, Ms Sturgeon warned that a second vote on the matter was “highly likely”.
It will run until St Andrew’s Day on 30 November and a website – www.survey2016.scot – has been set up to collect people’s views.
“We want to understand in detail how people feel about Europe, Brexit and independence”.
“If she was really listening, she would know that most of us don’t want to go back to another divisive referendum”.
The event comes almost two years on from the September 2014 referendum, which saw Scots vote by 55% to 45% in favour or remaining in the United Kingdom.
But Ms Sturgeon said the Brexit vote and the decision of Labour to “press the self-destruct button” had created a “double whammy” that made it necessary to look again at independence.
The party has also urged ministers to address what it called the housing “crisis”, saying official figures show the budget for housing and community amenities has been cut by £338 million since Ms Sturgeon became First Minister. “We want to build, if we can, a consensus on the way forward”.
A second “no” vote would likely also be politically fatal for Sturgeon, one of Britain’s most respected politicians.
Even an independent Scotland, as much discussed in 2014, could not rely on being granted fast-track European Union entry and would have to embark on accession talks which could take a decade or more.
According to a YouGov poll, Davidson has the highest net approval rating of any political leader in Scotland, and the Scottish Conservatives are the second most popular party after the SNP and ahead of Labour.
But he claimed Mr Corbyn is “hanging around her neck like a millstone” as she tries to rebuild Scottish Labour, which slumped to third place behind the Tories in May’s Holyrood elections.
Labour MSP James Kelly said his party would oppose holding a second second referendum during the five years of this Holyrood term. I bellieve fundamentally in redistribution of resource in our country in order to equalise outcomes to a much greater extent, I believe in pooling risks and rewards, and that’s what devolution allows and independence doesn’t allow that.
“The SNP are determined to drag us back to the arguments of the past”.
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In a speech that focused heavily on the economics of independence, which those leading the 2014 yes campaign acknowledge significantly weakened their case, Sturgeon said next week’s programme for government would outline measures to stimulate the Scottish economy and support jobs through the uncertainty of a Brexit.
