KATE Forbes has condemned the Conservatives’ “anti-democratic” stance on indyref2 during a heated televised debate.
The Finance Secretary took aim at Scottish Tory MP Andrew Bowie on BBC Politics Live.
It comes after Douglas Ross refused to accept that there is a democratic path for Scotland to achieve independence.
Bowie put it to Forbes that the UK Government will not agree to indyref2, regardless of the result in next month’s Holyrood election.
The SNP minister accused the Tories of abandoning the principles of the Union and said they were running scared of another plebiscite.
READ MORE: Douglas Ross refuses to set out democratic path to Scottish independence
“Basically, you are changing this Union from a partnership based on consent … to a Union that can only be secured through force of law,” Forbes commented.
“The question for the Tories is: if it’s not going to be a referendum, when the people of Scotland unequivocally vote for one, how does a country become independent?”
Bowie replied: “It might have passed Kate’s notice but it hasn’t passed mine that the people of Scotland had a referendum in 2014 and the people of Scotland gave their consent to remain in the United Kingdom.”
He argued that given the country was facing the “economic catastrophe” of the pandemic that now is not the time to “go down the rabbit hole” of another referendum.
Forbes, however, said independence and the recovery were not “mutually exclusive”.
She added: “Ultimately, you’re now in a position of being anti-democratic.”
The Finance Secretary pointed to the conclusions of Ciaran Martin, the former UK Government civil servant who led negotiations of the Edinburgh Agreement. He published a report last week about how Westminster views Scotland and concluded there is “no good reason” the election of a pro-independence majority in May would not represent a mandate for a second vote.
READ MORE: Pro-Yes majority is clear mandate for indyref2, former Westminster chief says
Citing his assessment of the Union, Forbes said: “Fear of a result is not a reason to ignore Scotland’s election result. And right now the Conservatives are fearful of the result and so all they can do is say no.
“Rather than presenting the positive case for the Union, which I am still to hear from Andrew or any of his colleagues, they just say no because they know they will lose [indyref2].
“That has fundamentally altered the Union from a partnership based on consent, to one that can only be protected through force of law, and that is anti-democratic.”
The debate came after Nicola Sturgeon had rebuked the leader of the Scottish Tories for repeatedly refusing to acknowledge there is a legitimate route for Scots to vote for independence.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon fires back at 'arrogant' Douglas Ross over indyref2 claim
In a pre-election interview with Channel 4 News, Ross was asked to spell out the democratic path to a referendum He said: "People in Scotland can decide on May 6 to get a parliament that is laser-focused on our recovery on rebuilding Scotland, we do that by stopping an SNP majority.
“And the tried and tested method to stop the SNP is to vote for the Scottish Conservatives because we’ve got the strength across the country to stand up to the SNP to challenge them and to stop their plans to divide our country with another independence referendum."
He was repeatedly pressed by the interviewer, but refused to budge from that stance.
Commenting on Twitter, Sturgeon wrote: “At stake here is a simple democratic principle that can unite those for and against independence – it is Scotland’s right to decide.
“The arrogant assertion that the Tories get to decide for us – no matter how Scotland votes – should be given short shrift by every democrat.”
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