Sturgeon put on the spot over a third referendum
Party pledges
NICOLA Sturgeon has refused to rule out a third independence referendum within just a few years.
The SNP leader was challenged on the issue by a member of the public during a special edition of the BBC’s Question Time Programme.
She was asked if she would guarantee that the result of a second vote would “last” for a minimum amount of time, such as 25 years.
But Ms Sturgeon faced jeers from the studio audience in Edinburgh when she refused, saying it was not the place of any politician to “dictate to a country” its future.
Earlier, another audience member, Hugh Gallagher, had asked Ms Sturgeon if she accepted she had miscalculated Scottish public opinion by calling for another independence referendum.
She denied the charge, saying that Scots should have a “choice” about an issue as large as the impact of Brexit. While politicians often take into account public opinion “sometimes you have to be guided by principle”, she added.
But there was applause from the audience as Mr Gallagher accused her of being “hopeless” at dealing with the big domestic issues facing Scotland.
Another person asked Ms Sturgeon: “Why have your poll ratings declined so much?” And a third challenged her: “You said you want to be judged on education. So on that basis shouldn’t you resign?”
The SNP leader hit back that the polls also suggested the SNP was on track to win the election in Scotland “fairly convincingly”.
She defended her record on education and the NHS but conceded “we have to make sure we address the challenges we face”. However, she said that she should not be judged on her record on education until the next Scottish Parliament elections, due in 2021.
Asked if she could put independence on the “back burner” as part of an anti-Tory alliance after the election, Ms Sturgeon repeated her belief that “at the end of the Brexit process people should have a choice”. But she was told by a woman in the audience that she was “losing a lot of votes from SNP supporters” because they don’t want a referendum now.
Scottish Conservative MSP for the North-east, Ross Thomson, said: “Once again, we’ve seen the First Minister taken to task on her party’s dreadful record on education.
“She struggled once again to explain why, after ten years in government, standards in our schools have slipped so badly. The reason is that this SNP Government has spent ten years obsessing about independence.”
Scottish Labour General Election campaign manager James Kelly said: “This was a tough night for the First Minister. No wonder Nicola Sturgeon spends so much time up in her helicopter, because when she comes into contact with the ordinary people of Scotland it becomes clear that the majority don’t want another divisive independence referendum.
“It’s time for Nicola Sturgeon to listen to the majority of Scots, who want her to get on with the day job of improving standards in our schools and hospitals instead of constantly trying to break up our country.”
Earlier, Ms Sturgeon repeated her claim the SNP could deny Theresa May a Commons majority as she visited a key electoral battleground.
The SNP leader also hit out at the “arrogance” of the Tories who she said had predicted a “crushing victory” in the General Election.
Her comments came as a new poll showed the Conservatives and Labour almost neck-and-neck in the race for No 10.
The poll, by Survation, is the second is as many days to suggest the gap between the two parties has narrowed to one point, although others have recently put it as high as 11.
Campaigning in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, where the Liberal Democrats hope to take the seat from the SNP, Ms Sturgeon said: “There is a possibility as we see the polls narrow that we could deny Theresa May a majority, and certainly deny her a bigger majority, which is why she called this election.
“There’s no doubt with polls narrowing in the rest of the UK whether or not Theresa May gets a majority – or a bigger majority – could come down to the outcome in Scotland.”
Once again, we’ve seen the First Minister taken to task on her party’s dreadful record on education