Ruth Davidson has said she expects all of the Conservative leadership candidates to rule out a referendum on Scottish independence.
The comments from the Scottish Tory leader come as Home Secretary Sajid Javid becomes the ninth MP to enter the race after Prime Minister Theresa May announced her plan to resign last week.
Asked if she would expect all candidates to rule out a section 30 order - the legal mechanism that transfers power to Holyrood to stage a second plebiscite - Ms Davidson said: "To be honest I would probably expect them to do that.
"We've yet to see the manifestos from any of them, so in terms of what they bring forward let me judge it when it comes.
"But I can't imagine there will be any of them that are running to grant it."
Ms Davidson's comments come after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she expected Scotland to vote for independence the next time a referendum is held.
Speaking in Dublin, she said: "There will be another Scottish independence referendum and I will make a prediction today that Scotland will vote for independence and we will become an independent country just like Ireland, and the strong relationship between our two countries now will become even stronger soon.
"I want to see Scotland having the choice of independence within this term of the Scottish Parliament, which ends in May 2021, so towards the latter half of next year would be when I think is the right time for that choice."
Ms Sturgeon also confirmed legislation for a second referedum would be tabled this week.
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