Nicola Sturgeon ‘wouldn’t rule out’ indyref2 by spring next year

It comes as the outgoing head of the vaccine task force has said that by August this year there will be no Covid-19 circulating in the UK.

The First Minister has said that she would only hold a constitutional vote once the Covid pandemic has passed.

Clive Dix, vaccine task force chief, told the Telegraph that the country is on track to vaccinate all adults by the end of July.

Asked by Marr if Scotland would hold a referendum by spring next year, based on predictions, that the pandemic was over, Sturgeon said: “That would certainly work for timescale of within the first half of the parliamentary term.

“But I very much, not just for reasons of an independence referendum, but for many reasons, I desperately hope those predictions are correct.

“But we have to judge that as we go through this year, we’ve still got many significant challenges ahead.”

Asked if the legislation would be put through the Scottish Parliament in that scenario, Sturgeon said: “I wouldn’t rule that out, equally I’m not sitting here right now and saying that that is the timescale. The people of Scotland reelected me as First Minister with the first task of continuing to see us through the pandemic, getting us into recovery.

“Then of course there’s the question of what kind of recovery do we want, what kind of country are we rebuilding to and that comes into sharp focus, where do decisions lie?

“I’m not sure the recovery that Boris Johnson envisages is one that a majority of people in Scotland would support.”

Sturgeon was also asked for her response to Michael Gove’s comments that suggested the UK Government wouldn’t take the Scottish Government to the UK Supreme Court.

She said: “Well, that’s what I heard him say, but I think it would be absurd and completely outrageous if it ever got to that point, if it ever got anywhere close to that point.

“Remember, for this to end up in court which is not anything that I ever want to see, it would mean that a Conservative government had refused to respect the democratic wishes of the Scottish people and the outcome of a democratic election and try to go to the Supreme Court to overturn Scottish democracy.

“I think it would be an understatement to say that wouldn’t play well.”

Sturgeon added that she “hoped” the UK Government had listened to her argument and is willing to revisit its position on a referendum.

She said: “Michael Gove opposes independence, he’s entirely entitled to that view.

“I support Scottish independence and I’m entitled to that view, but it shouldn’t be up to him or I to decide that question, it’s up to the Scottish people to decide that question and in this election they have voted overwhelmingly for the SNP, and we stood on a manifesto commitment to firstly, and this is where I agree with what Michael Gove was saying, to steer the country through the pandemic.

“I’ll be back behind my desk in Bute House this afternoon taking those decisions, but after the crisis give the people of Scotland the opportunity to choose our own future and a referendum.

“The fact we’re sitting here having a debate about whether that outcome is going to be respected says a lot about the lack of respect for Scottish democracy that this UK Government has demonstrated over quite some time now.”

Marr challenged Sturgeon multiple times on how she would respond to a UK Government challenge through the Supreme Court, but said she didn’t think it would be likely to happen, although admitted it was possible.

She said: “This whole debate is predicated on a situation where a UK government refuses to accept Scottish democracy, and what that means is you have a UK government that is saying that the UK is no longer a union based on consent, that it is no longer a voluntary union, that somehow Scotland is to be retained in the Union by force of law, now if that is the argument then we are going on to unprecedented territory, and Michael Gove was at pains to say that Scotland of course did have the democratic right if it chose so to become independent.

“If the argument of the Unionist side is that Scotland is trapped then it strikes me that that is one of the strongest arguments for independence.”

And on if losing a legal challenge in the courts would end all democratic routes to an independence referendum, Sturgeon added: “That would be a very serious situation, I can’t sit and answer that right now because it would be such a grave and serious and undemocratic situation that I don’t believe on either side anyone wants it to get to that point.

“There’s a fundamental issue of democracy at play here, we have just won a landslide, I can sit here and go through them but I won’t because I know you know them, all of the record breaking statistics of the election, I’m sure I’ll do that many times today whether people want me to or not.

“We just won a landslide election, don’t get me wrong, this is where perhaps there is perhaps an exaggeration of the difference I’m not proposing a referendum in this instant right now.”