A battle over Scotland’s future broke out yesterday after the first minister announced a public consultation on holding another independence referendum – and the Tory leader launched a petition opposing a vote.
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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”.
The First Minister outlined 14 Bills which her SNP administration at Holyrood will introduce – including four pieces of legislation making use of new powers that have just been devolved to Edinburgh.
“If the SNP were really listening to the people of Scotland they would be focusing on the bread and butter issues that matter to Scots like our public services”, Scottish Labour MP James Kelly said.
Polls suggest that just a fifth of Scottish No voters believe that staying in the European Union is more important than remaining in the UK.
SNP sources said the new survey would be as focused on why previous yes supporters had changed their minds.
For the Conservatives, Sturgeon said, the Government was “accidentally” triggering Brexit without a proper plan of what to do next.
Nicola Sturgeon was in the early stages of her pregnancy and preparing to share the news when the miscarriage occurred.
Within hours of the result, Sturgeon said that a new independence was “highly likely”, although formal consent would need to be gained the UK’s national parliament to hold a fresh vote.
But in a nod to her critics, Sturgeon vowed not to skirt the hard economic questions and said a specially commissioned SNP group would consider an independence policy program aimed at expanding the economy, cutting fiscal deficit and deciding a monetary strategy.
Victory in a second independence referendum would be the only way of possibly retaining membership as an independent member state.
Speaking after extracts of the book were published in The Sunday Times, Ms Sturgeon said: “This was obviously a painful experience for Peter and I and while Mandy has known about it for some time, she has always respected our decision not to talk about it publicly”.
The prospect of a long period of Conservative rule in Westminster – the main opposition Labour Party is now embroiled in a bitter leadership battle and well behind the governing Conservatives in opinion polls – meant a new debate on Scotland’s future was needed.
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.
She added: “The UK that Scotland voted to stay part of has changed and so to have the arguments for and against independence”.
Support for European Union membership among Scots in the June “Brexit” referendum was 62 percent, putting Scotland at odds with Britain as a whole which voted to leave.
She said this democratic deficit had been exacerbated over the summer by the “self-indulgence” of the Labour party, which had opened the door to “perhaps decades” of Tory government by its “self-destructive” behaviour.
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The Conservatives are in second place at 21% – five points ahead of the UK Labour Party.
