RUTH Davidson has been accused of “rank hypocrisy” over her claim that indyref2 should only happen if the SNP win an “outright majority” at the next Holyrood election.
While Nicola Sturgeon’s party do not have an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament on their own, the majority of MSPs in Holyrood do support independence.
On Wednesday Davidson appeared to insist that this is not enough to hold a vote.
She told the BBC: “If she [Sturgeon] puts it in a manifesto that she’s going to hold another referendum and she wins a majority outright, then she can negotiate with the UK Government in the same way as happened last time.
“But she doesn’t get to just, in the middle of a Parliament where she’s lost her majority, get to stick her hand up and say I’m going to re-run this referendum again and again until I get the result I want.”
Davidson’s comments seemed to contradict remarks made in 2011, when she said that if the “Greens and the SNP, and the SSP or any of the other parties who have expressed an interest in independence” can “make a coalition, can make a majority, can get the votes in the Parliament, then they’ll vote through a referendum”.
Speaking to The National yesterday, Ross Greer accused Davidson of “desperation”.
“The Scottish Greens committed to an independence referendum in our manifesto and unlike Ruth Davidson, we stand by the promises we make,” he said.
“There is a clear majority in the Scottish Parliament for independence and another referendum, demonstrated by our already having voted for it.
“It’s not immediately obvious to me what Ruth Davidson finds so challenging about the simple arithmetic required to work that out.
“There would be outrage amongst unionists if we suggested that the Tories alone had to win a majority to stop a second referendum, though that’s largely because even they know that’s never going to happen.
“For a party which demanded the government ‘get on with the day job’ to now demand that the next election be defined by a single issue which isn’t the Government’s ‘day job’ shows not just rank hypocrisy but also Ruth Davidson’s desperation to distract the people of Scotland while Tory Prime Ministers, who she cheers on but we didn’t elect, continue to overrule the will of the Scottish Parliament.”
A spokesman for the Tories hit back at the young Green: “We’ve long suspected Ross Greer wants to join the SNP – that he’s being sent out as their attack dog now proves it.”
The SNP’s Keith Brown said Davidson’s position was now “completely incoherent”.
“She is making it up as she goes along and directly contradicting herself, putting the Tories on the wrong side of public opinion.
“If the Tories want to compare mandates then let’s go ahead. Ruth Davidson’s party got under 12% of the vote last time Scotland went to the polls – yet she has the arrogance to pretend that she can lay down the law.
“A majority of MSPs support holding an independence referendum, and a clear majority of Scots believe it should be for Holyrood to decide, not Westminster.
“Ruth Davidson’s stance is fundamentally anti-democratic”.
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