Now, speaking movingly about the miscarriage for the first time, Ms Sturgeon tells Mandy Rhodes, the author of a new book called Scottish National Party Leaders, serialised in The Sunday Times: ‘If the miscarriage hadn’t happened, would I be sitting here as First Minister right now?
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The now-First Minister is launching a “listening exercise” which aims to allow her to continue to bombard the people of Scotland with divisive constitutional arguments many say they are exhausted of hearing. The commission will examine the prospects for Scotland’s finances as an independent country, and consider policies to both boost growth and reduce the deficit to a sustainable level.
Ms Sturgeon, addressing a meeting of SNP MSPs and councillors, said a “double whammy” of “seismic events” in the form of the Brexit vote and the Labour Party’s current troubles had changed the political landscape, paving the way for a second independence poll, something she believes is now “highly likely”.
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.
‘While I take nothing for granted, I suspect support for independence will be even higher if it becomes clear that it is the best, or the only way to protect our interests, ‘ said Sturgeon.
But the SNP said Ms Davidson should be apologising for the “mess” her party has created with Brexit.
Sturgeon argues that Britain’s June vote to leave the European Union, dragging Scotland with it, had shifted the debate dramatically just two years after Scots voted by 10 percentage points to reject independence.
She will highlight 29 new or refurbished school buildings due to open to pupils during this academic year under the Scottish Government’s £1.8 billion Schools for the Future programme.
Polls suggested a post-Brexit shift in support towards independence, but that appears to have softened in recent months.
“The SNP are determined to drag us back to the arguments of the past”.
Her sensational claims come nearly two years after the September 2014 referendum where 55% of Scotland voted to stay part of the UK.
She said independence would provide “an alternative to just hoping for the best at Westminster”, although she admitted it would present “its own challenges and complexities”.
NICOLA Sturgeon refused to rule out a second independence referendum yesterday – as Theresa May insisted Scots don’t want one.
“As leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party, I will oppose any attempt by the SNP to hold another referendum”.
Her pitch today is that the case for independence has changed, and that she will not be seeking to win people over with the same lines used two years ago.
Ms Sturgeon said: “It will be a plan based on success and inclusion that will be delivered by a Government acting in the best interests of all of Scotland – a Government for everyone who lives here”.
The opposition Scottish Conservative Party said a second independence referendum was “utterly unjustified and unnecessary”.
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“My view is absolutely clear, I think Kezia is a fantastic, young, strong, woman leader of the Labour Party in Scotland and she is doing a fantastic job in hard circumstances, having inherited a set of circumstances where Scottish Labour is at a very low ebb, and she’s got Jeremy Corbyn hanging around her neck like a millstone”, he said.
