NICOLA Sturgeon is being urged to “stop beating about the bush” and call a second independence referendum.
The First Minister has repeatedly said a new plebiscite is “on the table” and “highly likely” following the result of the EU referendum in which Scotland voted to Remain but the UK as a whole voted to Leave.
She has also made it clear she is “not bluffing” about holding a new vote in the event of a hard Brexit out of the single market, but has said there won’t be one this year.
Despite the Prime Minister this week clearly rejecting the Scottish Government’s demands to keep either the whole of the UK or Scotland in the single market, the SNP leader has not announced a second ballot.
On Tuesday Theresa May dismissed the possibility of pursuing a similar deal to that of Norway – which is in the single market but is not an EU member.
May stressed her approach would be as a “one great union of nations” and that the UK would be completely leaving.
“We are leaving the European Union,” May said.
“We seek a new and equal partnership... Not partial membership of the European Union, associate membership of the European Union, or anything that leaves us half-in, half-out.
“We do not seek to adopt a model already enjoyed by other countries. We do not seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave. No, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union.”
Now key Europhile figures in the SNP are concerned Scottish voters could get used to the concept of a hard Brexit and that a possible deal by May to give Holyrood new powers would weaken the case for independence. They are pleading with Sturgeon to fulfil her 2016 Holyrood manifesto commitment to hold a new referendum if Scotland was “taken out of the EU against our will”.
One senior insider told The National the circumstances for a new vote on independence will not improve.
“A problem with the current strategy of waiting, exploring all options is that it is putting the ball solely in the UK Government’s court. May will probably suggest handing Holyrood more powers and the danger from an independence point of view is that voters will go for that as the shock factor of leaving the EU and the single market dissipates and people get normalised to it,” he said.
“Nicola will never get better circumstances than Brexit to hold a new independence referendum. She has a clear mandate and if you have a mandate you can’t keep marching your troops to the top of the hill.”
He believed the invoking of Article 50, which begins the exiting process and which May has said she will do before the end of March, will create a new shock factor which the First Minister could use to announce a second vote on independence.
“I do feel the triggering of Article 50 will mark a new shock and that will be the moment for Nicola to act and call a new referendum,” he said.
A second figure – SNP national executive committee member Toni Giugliano, a candidate for the party in Edinburgh at last May’s Holyrood elections, also backed a snap ballot.
“We have come to the stage now where we need to be honest with ourselves and stop beating about the bush. Theresa May has rejected our proposals for staying in the single market or for a differentiated Scottish deal and we need to start making preparations for a new referendum on independence.
“We need to stop beating about the bush on this. Theresa May made it clear there would be no divisions in the UK Brexit case and therefore we have no choice but to have a second referendum.”
A third figure, a businessman who joined the SNP after the June referendum, took a similar stance.
He said: “Theresa May made it abundantly clear on Tuesday that Scotland and the fact we voted to Remain is inconsequential. We do not matter. She is taking the UK down the path of a hard Brexit and says there is nothing Scotland can do about it.
“People are saying that May has called Nicola Sturgeon’s bluff. Nicola now needs to act fast and call a second independence referendum.”
Polling has suggested that support for independence stands at around 45 per cent – the same as the result in the September 2014 referendum.
However pro-independence campaigners believe that a new campaign tied to Brexit could push support over the winning 50 per cent mark.
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