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Ruth Davidson: No independence referendum 'any time soon'

Ruth Davidson says she does not want indyref2 for a generation - PA
Ruth Davidson says she does not want indyref2 for a generation - PA

Ruth Davidson has said she does not want to see another independence referendum for a generation, and dismissed the idea of a vote “any time soon” while the terms of Brexit and the SNP’s plans for separation were not clear.

She said the Nationalists did not have a mandate for another bid to break-up Britain, despite the backing of the Scottish Parliament, as there had to be a plurality of opinion with “both political and public consent”.

Nicola Sturgeon claims there is a "cast iron" mandate after her manifesto in 2016 said another vote could take place if there was a "material change in circumstances", such as Scotland being removed from the European Union against its wishes.

But Ms Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, said the people of Scotland did not want it, ruling out a vote until at least after 2021, and used a television appearance to issue a direct appeal to voters help her stop it happening.

She told the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland programme: “Scotland cannot be dragged back to another independence referendum when we don’t know what the options look like, because we don’t know what Brexit looks like, and we don’t know what independence looks like because Nicola Sturgeon won’t even tell us if we would be in or our of the EU or Efta (European Free Trade Association), or something else. Nor should we dragged back there when the people of Scotland don’t want it.

nicola sturgeon - Credit: PA
Nicola Sturgeon wants a new vote before the spring of 2019 Credit: PA

“Before the 2016 election I was standing next to her on a platform doing one of these television debates when she said time and time again that if the people of Scotland didn't want a referendum there won’t be one.”

Ms Davidson added that the statement in the manifesto was “conditional” and said that the SNP lost its overall majority in the parliament and did not have public backing. Theresa May has so far refused to support a transfer of powers to allow a vote, saying that “now is not the time”.

The Scottish Tory leader said: “The UK Government could just have said no, there is never going to be another referendum ever again. They didn’t. They said there cannot be one when the people of Scotland do not know that the options look like, they don’t know what Brexit looks like, they don't know what independence looks like.”

She claimed there should not be a vote before it was clear how Brexit was “working on the ground”. Ms Sturgeon has called for a vote between the autumn of next year and the spring of 2019.

Asked if she could envisage the conditions laid down in the Tory manifesto for a new referendum -that it should have public consent and the Brexit process should have “played out” - being fulfilled before the next Holyrood election in 2021, Ms Davidson said: “I am absolutely not going to advocate for this to be held within the next while. I am not going to advocate for this to be held within the next generation, which is what the people of this country were promised.

“I say it is a weak mandate. With the current trajectory of support in this country going down for another independence referendum I don’t see it happening any time soon.”

She added: “If you want to stop this, help me. I am telling people at home, help me stop this because we can do it together.”

On the same programme, Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, said it was a key issue in the election. She added: “I am the only leader that has travelled from Stornaway to Lockerbie and everywhere I go I meet people who are distressed, upset, worried about the instability that a second referendum would cause and indeed the damage that independence would do in terms of pounds15 billion of additional cuts.”

Angus Robertson, SNP candidate for Moray, said Ms Davidson had made it clear that the Tories would ignore “the overwhelming majority of the people in Scotland in the Brexit negotiations” and any Scottish Tory MPS “will simply act as rubber stamps for Theresa May’s increasingly extreme policies”.