Scotland gears up for second vote

NICOLA Sturgeon has indicated another referendum will not be staged until she believes independence can be achieved, while confirming that the SNP manifesto will contain details of its timing.

Scots voted 55-45 percent against independence in a September 2014 referendum but the May 7 general election saw the SNP take 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the Westminster parliament.

But he insisted Holyrood could have held an “indicative referendum anyway”.

The SNP leader’s remarks came ahead of the party’s conference in Aberdeen next month.

The SNP is pushing for a second referendum on splitting from the United Kingdom , a year after Scots rejected the idea.

“The First Minister and I both talk a lot about closing the attainment gap”, she said.

Condemning Sturgeon’s comments, Leader of the Scottish Conservatives Rush Davidson told the Financial Times the SNP is threatening renewed “uncertainty and division“.

“It doesn’t work and will never work… we need to get it right… otherwise the consequences will be fatal”.

After Jeremy Corbyn was elected as the new leader of the opposition Labour Party on Saturday, Sturgeon cautioned that if his party failed to show swiftly it could beat Cameron’s Conservatives in the next national election then desire for Scottish independence would rise.

The former First Minister said a combination of actions by the UK Government meant a rerun of the constitutional battle was “much closer” than previously predicted. Despite her own promises, it is now clear that Nicola Sturgeon wants to take Scotland back to a neverendum.

“A year after she promised us that it would be a once-in-a-lifetime event she is now putting her party first before the country by plunging us into another protracted campaign for independence”.

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: “Scottish Labour is changing and politics is changing”.

Speaking on Sky News’ Murnaghan programme, he added: “If the public had determined that there was going to be one and there was a mandate for a referendum, I think any UK Prime Minister who tried to stand in the way of the Scottish people would be very, very foolish indeed”.