Nicola Sturgeon accused of trying to win Scottish independence by waiting for older Unionists to die

Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of trying to win Scottish independence by waiting for older Unionists to die off after she said “demographics” meant that delaying another referendum would increase her chances of victory.

The First Minister warned Boris Johnson that she had “time on my side” if he wanted to postpone a second separation vote by “playing a waiting game”.

She told the Financial Times: “You look at the demographics of the support for independence – well, I’m not sure that’s going to get you out of this conundrum.”

A series of polls have shown more than two-thirds of young Scots support independence, but pensioners overwhelmingly back remaining in the UK.

Ms Sturgeon’s official spokesman on Thursday refused to clarify whether she was referring to young independence supporters joining the electoral roll, older Unionists dying off, or both factors combined.

However, Angus Robertson, one of her closest allies and the Scottish Culture Secretary, faced a barrage of criticism last year for arguing that the deaths of elderly Scots were delivering a “gain for independence”.

Mr Robertson, the SNP’s former Westminster leader, said that “55,000 predominantly “No” supporting voters [were] passing away every year”.

Pamela Nash, chief executive of campaign group Scotland in Union, said: “While she is less blunt, she is also making the same distasteful argument that her colleagues have repeatedly made about waiting for older Scots to die in the hope that this will deliver separation.”

Susan Dalgety, who was chief press officer for Jack McConnell when he was Labour first minister, tweeted: “There’s a bit of me that is mildly amused by Nicola Sturgeon’s strategy of waiting till demographics are on her side (i.e. enough ‘yoons’ die to give her a narrow majority to leave UK). But thinking about it – it really is cold-hearted. Chilling even.”

Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Tory leader, tweeted: “It also (falsely) assumes people’s priorities and voting intentions don't change as they get older and enter new stages of their lives – kids, home ownership, pension etc.”

Asked to clarify her comments, Ms Sturgeon’s official spokesman said they “speak for themselves” and it was an “established fact” that support for independence was higher among younger than older people.

The First Minister wants to stage another referendum within the next two years, after the immediate health crisis is over but while Scotland is still recovering from the pandemic.

But the Prime Minister has repeatedly made clear he will not hand her the legal powers to stage another vote and Ms Sturgeon admitted to the FT: “I can’t look ahead and tell you exactly how this constitutional impasse is going to resolve itself.”

She insisted she would eventually get her way as “the alternative is pretty unthinkable”, adding: “As we come out of this winter into the spring – with, I hope, a lot more certainty about the Covid situation being a bit more in the rear-view mirror – we start to take more concrete decisions around all of this.”

Ms Sturgeon has previously threatened to stage her own separation referendum without Westminster’s consent, and challenge the UK Government to try and block it in the courts.

However, legal experts warned that a Supreme Court decision this week, ruling that her government had overstepped its powers, could “torpedo” her referendum strategy. Constitutional affairs are reserved to Westminster.

Prof Adam Tomkins, the John Millar chair of public law at Glasgow University and a former Tory MSP, said the ruling “harms any Nationalist conceit that there could ever be a path to a lawful independence referendum without Westminster’s explicit consent”.