Nicola Sturgeon: no decision on 2nd independence referendum

“The query of course is not the inevitability, it is the timing, and that is incredibly a great deal in the palms of Nicola Sturgeon”.

Ian Murray, Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary, said Mr Salmond’s priorities were wrong, adding: “Today’s newspapers are full of stories about failures by the SNP Government, from a pounds1 billion GP funding cut to chaos at the heart of Police Scotland”.

“It does no favours to use talk of a second referendum as a cloak to avoid talking about what the Scottish government can do with the powers they’ve got and what they can do with the substantial powers which are on the way through the Scotland Bill”.

Salmond and, crucially, Nicola Sturgeon would likely need a sea-change in popular opinion on another vote to justify the upheaval of another referendum. However, Salmond is being accused of “obsessing about a re-run” since voters rejected independence by 55% to 45% just last September.

“I can’t tell you what’s in the manifesto because it clearly hasn’t been written yet”.

He added: “At this point in time I don’t think the circumstances are presentable for another referendum right now”.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, the former Tory Scotland secretary Lord Forsyth said the union between Scotland and the rest of the UK was “hanging by a thread” and being jeopardised by “piecemeal” devolution and the stirring up of both English and Scottish nationalism as a result of the Conservative government’s plans for English votes for English laws.

The Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP also put forward a second question asking what assessment had been made “of the implications for his policy on a further referendum on Scottish independence of the Scottish Parliament election in 2016 delivering a majority for political parties committed to the holding of such a referendum”.

“&#x201cThe 1st Minister has designed distinct we are not organizing an additional referendum, but equally has created it very clear that it is not in the gift of any politician and bash to rule it out indefinitely”, he stated.

“It will be up to me or any future leader of the SNP to decide whether or not that goes in a manifesto for a Scottish election”.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond holds the referendum white paper on independence during its launch in Glasgow, Scotland November 26, 2013.

“But the ultimate decision as to whether there is a referendum again, when that might be and what the outcome might be are all matters entirely for the democratic decision of the Scottish people”.