Sturgeon attacked for ignoring advice to launch IndyRef2 court fight

IndyRef2: Scotland's future remains in doubt says Curtice

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Nicola Sturgeon was accused of “wasting time, resources and money” by ploughing ahead with an IndyRef2 court case that Unionists say is doomed to fail. Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross, criticised the First Minister for launching into a legal battle on holding a fresh vote on splitting up the UK next year despite the cost of living crisis.

Ms Sturgeon has vowed to hold a new independence referendum on October 19 despite polls showing a majority of Scots do not want one.

The legal power to grant a referendum lies in the hands of Westminster, but the SNP chief is hoping to use a legal loophole to hold a vote regardless.

She is arguing that a referendum can be held so long as it is non-binding and therefore has no constitutional standing.

The Scottish Government’s most senior lawyer refused to endorse the plan earlier this year, suggesting her logic was flawed.

Instead, the Supreme Court will now decide if the Scottish government can hold the vote.

“Nicola Sturgeon wants to hold a referendum to separate Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom in 12 months time, she wants to hold that referendum in a year, at a time when we are going through a global cost of living crisis,” Mr Ross said addressing Tory members at the Conservative party conference.

“Her appointed Lord Advocate has clearly said to Nicola Sturgeon that there is not the competency within the powers of the Scottish Government to hold a referendum, quite clearly, because powers over constitutional matters are reserved to the UK Parliament.

“So Nicola Sturgeon is not simply taking her eye off the ball all over again by focusing on this issue, she is also certainly going against the advice of her own most senior lawyer.

“She is wasting time, resources, money, and civil servants’ input on another independence referendum when it could be, and should be, and must be focused on farmer important issues than that.”

Conservatives argue the Scottish Government are failing voters by not focusing on their priorities.

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They have demanded Ms Sturgeon stop talking about independence to focus on matters such as health and education.

Tory member of the Scottish Parliament, Craig Hoy, added that Ms Sturgeon had only taken legal action as a last resort due to “desperation”.

He told party members gathered in Birmingham: “Nicola Sturgeon has not gone to the Supreme Court out of choice, she has gone to the Supreme Court out of desperation.

“And it’s not just us as the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party saying we don’t want another Scottish referendum, it’s the Scottish people.

“If you look at recent opinion polls, most Scots, including SNP supporters are saying this is not the time for another independence referendum.

“We’re coming out of the Covid pandemic, we’ve got huge economic challenges we see, and in Scotland we’ve also got to rebuild out public services because after 15 years of SNP Government, they have failed on schools, hospitals, roads, railways, ferries, competitiveness, jobs and there’s a huge job for them to do.”

An Ipsos survey published in August suggested just 29 percent of Scots were in favour of an independence vote according to the timeline set out by Ms Sturgeon.

The company spoke to a representative sample of 1,000 adults above the age of 16 and was carried out from August 12 to August 15.

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