Prime Minister Theresa May scored a rating of +13, while Scotland First Minister Sturgeon landed a positive rating of +20 – just behind Scotland’s most highly-rated leader, the Scottish Conservatives’ Ruth Davidson, on +21.
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SNP lawmaker Richard Lochhead says the party had to measure the lie of the land after the “gamechanger” of the “Brexit” referendum to understand “what all that means for how we present the independence case and how people view it”.
In addition to this, Ms Sturgeon announced the SNP would establish a party growth commission, which will look at the prospects for Scotland’s economy and also consider key matters such as currency.
Sturgeon added: ‘Today we are launching, as the first phase in our new campaign, the biggest listening exercise in our party’s history.
Despite Sturgeon’s insistence that the Brexit vote had shifted Scottish opinion, a YouGov poll for the Times Scotland on Friday suggested the figure in favour of independence had barely shifted over the past two years, despite the June referendum.
The Scottish Nationalist leader said that repeated polls since the vote had shown increased support for independence.
To allow one part of the United Kingdom to remain, following the vote to leave, has no precedent in the European Union treaties and would be vetoed by France and Spain.
The politician added: “The UK that existed before June 23 has fundamentally changed”.
She said: “As First Minister I’m not prepared to stand by and watch that happen without a battle”.
Armed with that information and a better idea of what Brexit means, it can better decide whether and how to call another referendum – raising the stakes further for British Prime Minister Theresa May as she grapples with the thorny European Union exit.
“Over the past decade, this Parliament has become more and more powerful, but the Government’s programme has become less and less ambitious”, she said.
The SNP wants to find out why people voted against independence in 2014 and what new offer might persuade them to back it in future.
She added: “We have started work to reform education and give our children the best opportunities in life, our A&E departments are the best performing in the United Kingdom, and we’re taking forward plans for legislation on child poverty and social security”.
However, her critics have pointed to the £15 billion deficit in Scotland’s public spending and a slump in oil revenue.
Labour leadership contender Owen Smith has said Scotland should not have a second independence referendum – just two days after he stated he would not oppose such a ballot.
She went on to accuse the Conservatives of making “high handed, arrogant comments. that Scotland should know her place, that Westminster is boss, we’ll simply have to like it or lump it, whatever is decided”. It is utterly unjustified and unnecessary.
“More than that, my party will demand that this increasingly arrogant nationalist government gets back to the day job it was elected to do – to improve our schools, our hospitals and to create jobs”.
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The book describes how Sturgeon, who is married to the Scottish National party’s chief executive, Peter Murrell, was in the early stages of pregnancy and preparing to share her news with friends and family when she had a miscarriage.
