NO money has been set aside for a second independence referendum this year, despite Nicola Sturgeon saying she remains hopeful of holding it.
The newly published Scottish budget for 2020/21 mentions preparations for Indyref2, but fails to allocate any funds to it.
Public finance minister Kate Forbes, delivering the budget after the resignation of Derek Mackay, also said there was no spare money left over.
She said: “This is a budget that fully allocates the resources at our disposal.”
The 2014 referendum cost £15.8m to organised and hold.
However the entire budget of the Government Business and Constitutional Relations budget for the coming financial year is £16.1m.
This includes £2.1m for local government elections and 1m for Scottish parliament elections, but nothing for another vote on the constitution.
The text says one of the portfolio’s policy goals will be to “develop and disseminate detailed information on the case for independence and continue to prepare for a referendum which would give Scotland the opportunity to choose its constitutional future, as demanded in the December 2019 election and at previous polls”.
Ms Sturgeon has said she wants to hold Indyref2 in the latter half of the year, based on a legal agreement with the UK Government.
However Borish Johnson has refused to give Holyrood the power to hold it.
Ms Sturgeon last week insisted it was “perfectly realistic” to hold Indyref2 this year, but admitted it might be later.
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