NICOLA Sturgeon’s office insisted there would be a second referendum in the current Scottish Parliament, but accepted it might not be until May 2021.
Setting out her preferred timetable on Monday, the First Minister said she wanted Scots to choose between Brexit in the UK or independence between autumn 2018 and spring 2019.
However she was careful to leave some wriggle room, saying the vote should be before Brexit “or at least within a short time after it”.
She repeated the point the next day, saying the choice should be “when the terms of Brexit are clear but before the UK leaves the European Union or shortly afterwards”.
At a media briefing after Theresa May’s statement, the First Minister’s official spokesman was asked the cut-off date for a possible second referendum.
He said: “The mandate is clear. The mandate is for this parliamentary term.”
Asked if that meant the SNP government therefore wanted the referendum “at some point before May 2021”, the date of the next scheduled Holyrood election, he said: “Yes.”
Asked if the government could accept a referendum up to 2021, he said: “The First Minister has made clear her preferred timescale and that is the timescale we are working to.
“But the mandate is for this parliament. The basis on which this government was elected is the mandate in the manifesto, the manifesto covers the parliamentary term.”
The elastic timetable suggests Ms Sturgeon had already calculated the UK Government might try to delay a referendum beyond Brexit, and could accept that.
However with her mandate expiring in 2021 and no guarantee of a pro-independence majority in the next Scottish Parliament, she will also insist on cashing it in this term.
“There’s going to be an independence referendum,” her spokesman said.
He added: “This issue is not going away. There is an absolutely rock solid, crystal clear mandate for this referendum to happen.
He also said that blocking a referendum would “play disastrously” with Scottish voters, and prove to be a “miscalculation of epic and historic proportions”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel