NICOLA Sturgeon has insisted that there will be an independence referendum next year – regardless of who’s in Number 10 on December 13.
The First Minister was in Alloa yesterday, campaigning with John Nicholson who is seeking to oust incumbent Tory MP Luke Graham.
She said a win for the SNP at next month’s election would make demand for indyref2 “irresistible”.
Labour or Tory opposition to devolving the powers to hold a new vote would “crumble,” Sturgeon insisted.
She was speaking ahead of today’s debate and vote on her government’s framework Referendums Bill.
It’s the first chance many MSPs will have had to argue over the legislation which provides a legal framework for the holding of referendums on any matters within Scotland’s control, but which ultimately pave the way for the next indyref.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the First Minister said that any politician wanting the party’s support for their minority government “needs to accept that it’s up to Scottish people and Scottish parliament to decide if and when” to hold another independence referendum.
“It is my intention to have a referendum next year.
“On this question of will Westminster allow it or not, we are the start of an election campaign – this is an opportunity for the people in Scotland to have their say and make their views known.
“If the SNP wins this election, I think that demand becomes irresistible.
“This idea that for self-interest reasons Westminster politicians
can stand in the way of people
in Scotland choosing their own future, we already see that start to crumble.”
Sturgeon said Labour were already “pretty much conceding” it could not stand in the way of a second independence vote and added: “I suspect it won’t be too much longer until we see the Tories struggle to maintain that argument as well.”
Meanwhile, the LibDems were coming under fire after posting more dodgy bar charts on their election leaflets.
In one example, shared on social media by Business Insider, the party claimed “Yougov polling for Putney” showed that they were in joint first with the Tories on 31%.
This was surprising as at the last election the Tories took 20,000 votes, Labour 19,000 and the LibDems just 5000.
YouGov said they had not carried out any polling in the constituency and “would not defend” how it had been presented in the leaflet.
Small print on the leaflet said the party’s graphs were based on a projection of national YouGov polling by the website Flavible.
However, the creator of the website George Rushton accused the LibDems of “intentionally misinforming” voters.
“As many have seen, campaign material has been distributed by the Liberal Democrats, tweets have been shared by individual candidates and local parties,” Rushton said.
“Most have correctly labelled this data. However, a few have either themselves misinterpreted the data or intentionally mislabelled the data for political advantage.”
It follows on from another leaflet sent out by the party, which seemingly quotes the Guardian as saying “Lib Dems winning and on the up after by-election victory.”
However, the quote is actually from Swinson herself.
Speaking to reporters on a party bus taking her on a tour of three Tory-held targets seats yesterday, Swinson said the party was on the up.
“I don’t think the 2017 election is a good guide to our politics now,” she said.
“All of that is evidence that the Liberal Democrats are in a very different place. We know that we are genuinely competitive in a huge number of seats now. And that includes seats where we’ve never before really been in serious contention. And that’s a very exciting place to be.”
She also said there could still be more defections to the LibDems after the election.
Swinson has put herself very much at the front of the party’s campaign. The election battle bus is adorned with a massive enormous picture of the East Dunbartonshire politician on it, with the party called, “Jo Swinson’s Liberal Democrats”, and the slogan: “Stop Brexit, build a brighter future.”
Meanwhile, Labour have banned three of their former MPs from standing at next month’s election – including Chris Williamson one of Jeremy Corbyn’s key allies.
Williamson was suspended earlier this over anti-Semitism.
However, no decision was made on whether Keith Vaz can stand. He was suspended from the Commons after offering to help buy cocaine for male sex workers.
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