THE SNP’s Kate Forbes took apart claims that there is no mandate for a second independence referendum from Unionist party representatives during last night’s Question Time.
The MSP hit back at Labour MP Lisa Nandy who claimed that the majority of pro-independence MSPs in Holyrood can’t be claimed as a mandate because the SNP’s campaign was a “hoax”.
The MP, who once suggested Scotland could look to Catalonia for answers on how to beat “divisive nationalism”, claimed that after the election Nicola Sturgeon said she had a mandate for independence. The National is not aware of the First Minister making this claim – she did however say the result is a mandate for a new referendum.
Both the Greens and the SNP, who together have 72 MSPs in the Parliament, stood on manifestoes calling for indyref2 in the next parliamentary term.
READ MORE: WATCH: Professor John Curtice destroys the Tory case against indyref2
During the BBC’s flagship politics programme, the panel members were asked if there is a mandate. After fellow Labour member and journalist Paul Mason argued there was, and called on his party to accept independence is coming, Nandy gave her take.
“Nicola Sturgeon cant have it both ways,” she told viewers. “She said very clearly during these elections that people could happily vote for the SNP if they were pro remaining in the United Kingdom, safe in the knowledge that they would be voting for an SNP government with a much broader agenda in a broader set of elections.
“And now she’s claiming that she has a mandate from those people for independence. It was a hoax frankly. It was exactly the same during the 2014 referendum when she and Alex Salmond said that this was a once in a generation opportunity to settle the question.”
Asked by Fiona Bruce whether she still believes a new vote should not be blocked, Nandy refused to say. She responded: “I don’t think you can claim that this is a mandate for independence when Nicola Sturgeon herself went out and sought votes on the basis that you can be pro the future of the United Kingdom and Scotland in the United Kingdom and still vote for the SNP.”
She accepted that there is a “sizeable number of people” in Scotland who do not like the status-quo, but added it is “incumbent on all political parties” to make the case for the Union.
Forbes responded with reference to Scottish Labour seeing their worst ever result in a Holyrood election.
“I think Lisa Nandy has just explained very well why the Labour Party are third in the Scottish Parliament and why they’ve got their worst ever vote share,” she said. “Because there is a complete lack of respect for the voters in Scotland.
“Look, I don’t expect everyone on the panel to agree with me on independence. That’s clear. I don’t expect everyone in Scotland to agree with me or even in the Question Time audience to agree with me. But that is precisely why that question needs to go back to the people.”
She stressed that the SNP is not calling for indyref2 immediately, but after the crisis in order to “equip the Parliament with the powers we need to shape our future”.
“We live in a parliamentary democracy,” she reminded the panel. “There can be no disputing the emphatic victory last week.
“And the only people who are saying no to another referendum are the people who are scared of the outcome. Debate the issues, debate the substance. Don’t just keep saying no to the people of Scotland, because that means that this Union has fundamentally changed from one based on consent, a voluntary Union based on consent, to one that is only based on the force of law.”
Yesterday during BBC Scotland’s Debate Night, polling expert John Curtice dismissed Tory claims that there is no mandate.
The professor shook his head as Conservative MSP Craig Hoy argued the result shows a “narrow majority for remaining in the UK”.
Curtice told the politician: “The problem that your side of the argument has is you can reasonably argue ‘well it was only seven years ago that we had the last referendum’. The trouble is that Brexit happened in that interim. It’s perfectly clear from the polling evidence, the polling evidence which has now been confirmed by the result last Thursday that the pursuit of Brexit has undermined support for the Union.”
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