POLITICIANS ruling out a second referendum on independence don’t have Scotland’s “best interests at heart”, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The First Minister made the comments at Business For Scotland’s annual dinner in Glasgow on Thursday night, where she also revealed that just under 300,000 people have taken part in the SNP’s National Survey.
She told the 300 guests that Brexit meant the “old arguments about the UK providing stability and security for Scotland” were now “dead in the water.”
“Never again can those who don’t support independence claim that it is we who are undermining jobs and investment,” she said.
“The uncertainty and the threat to jobs and investment are happening now under and because of the union.”
The First Minister went on to say that to not consider independence as an option post-Brexit would “be to accept that we are at the mercy of Westminster’s decisions no matter how damaging or destructive to our economy, our society, our place in the world”
She added: “Those who say we should do that, I don’t believe have Scotland’s best interests at heart.”
Sturgeon then accused the Tories of being “shrill” about Scottish independence in a “naked attempt” to deflect attention from the huge uncertainty caused by Brexit.
The SNP leader launched the party’s listening exercise last Friday, telling MPs, MSPs and MEPs she wanted them and party activists out on the street and knocking on doors in a bid to have two million people take part in the survey before it ends on St Andrew’s Day.
Earlier in the week the First Minister unveiled a new bill for independence ready to be introduced if the Scottish Government conclude that leaving the UK is the only way to maintain Scotland’s links with Europe.
Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson called the bill a “direct threat to our nation’s economic growth.”
“The single biggest economic lever that the SNP could pull right now to help the country grow would be to remove the threat of a second referendum. That is what is holding us back, and stifling investment in our firms,” Davidson claimed.
Gordon MacIntyre Kemp, Business for Scotland’s CEO, said the success of the listening exercise and the success of his organisation’s dinner demonstrated how the mood in the country is changing regarding independence.
Business for Scotland, he said, is “going from strength to strength” and the organisation would play a pivotal role in the next referendum making the arguments for the affordability of independence.
“Our message is detailed, professional, fact-based and unequivocal ... the powers of independence will make Scotland more economically successful,” MacIntyre Kemp said.
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