NICOLA Sturgeon has warned that the Tories would set themselves “on a collision course with the Scottish population” if they stood in the way of a “clear demand” for another independence referendum.
The First Minister made the claim as the Conservatives, who won 20 per cent of the vote to become Scotland’s second-biggest party, pledged to oppose another referendum and make life difficult for the SNP Government on policies they oppose.
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said the SNP would be “incredibly foolish” to stage another referendum, and that he “wouldn’t be unhappy” if the UK Government blocked it.
However, Sturgeon warned the Tories that any electoral recovery for them in Scotland would come to a “juddering halt” if they acted as a “road block” to a fresh independence referendum were there to be sufficient demand from the Scottish electorate for such a vote.
Meanwhile, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson suggested another Conservative government was likely in 2020, with Labour floundering in Scotland and the UK. He said that if the Tories remained in power at Westminster and continued to impose cuts on Scotland, where the party has just one MP, it would boost support for independence.
Sturgeon also confirmed her intention to relaunch the SNP’s independence campaign in the summer, despite being reduced to a minority in Holyrood.
The SNP leader insists her manifesto pledge to “undertake new work, starting this summer, with the aim of persuading a clear majority of people in Scotland that independence is the best future for our country” was backed by almost half of voters in the Scottish election on Thursday.
Sturgeon told BBC One’s Sunday Politics Scotland she was “not going to be thwarted in [her] determination to govern in the interests of the country as a whole”.
When asked if Scotland could put an independence referendum to bed for the next five years, Sturgeon said: “No, the position I put forward in the SNP manifesto got the support of almost 50 per cent of the population.”
She said the Tories “were the only ones going in with an unequivocal position of saying No to another independence referendum and they got just over 20 per cent of the vote”.
“It’s a ridiculous notion to say that because the Conservatives managed to get scarcely over 20 per cent of the vote that somehow the case for independence has taken a step back, " she said. "The contrary is the case.”
“There is an independence- supporting majority in the Scottish Parliament if you take the SNPs and the Greens.
“My manifesto said in certain circumstances the Scottish Parliament should have the right to propose another referendum.”
She added: “I have got to persuade other people of the strength of my case, and in saying that, I am prepared to do that patiently, with a lot of humility and listening to people.”
Speaking on the same programme, Scottish Conservative deputy leader Carlaw had said that his party would use its increased strength at Holyrood to ensure that any attempt to stage another independence referendum was thwarted.
Carlaw said: “It wasn’t in their manifesto, I don’t think they have the mandate, and I think Scotland has now made it very clear that it wants to see the government get on with governing the country, and to put the independence issue aside for this parliament.
“I think if the SNP has got any sense it will recognise that if it persists with trying to put Scotland through another referendum, it is actually going to come to grief.” Asked if the UK Government should try to prevent a second vote on independence, he added: “I wouldn’t be unhappy if they did, but I actually don’t believe it is going to get to that point.”
However, Sturgeon hit back, saying: “If we get into a situation where the Tories decide to be a road block to the democratic will of the Scottish people I think the Tories will find themselves, with any talk of a recovery which I think they are perhaps overstating right now, with that recovery coming to a juddering halt.” SNP MP Robertson also dismissed Tory claims that the SNP’s demotion to a minority government had halted the drive for another referendum in its tracks.
The MP for Moray said that “there’s still a pro-independence majority in the Scottish Parliament”, with the Scottish Greens making up the numbers.
Speaking on Sky’s Murnaghan programme, he said: “I think support for independence will go up, because they will see that the alternative is continuing Tory austerity and being governed by a party that we haven’t even elected that frankly thinks it can do whatever it likes in Scotland.”
He added: “I think the time will come when people will say: ‘I think we’ve had enough of this.”
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