THE UK Government's continued opposition to indyref2 is not sustainable and Scots must get the choice of a better future, according to the SNP.
At the Lords' Constitution Committee, Philip Rycroft, former Scotland Office adviser and head of UK governance in the Cabinet Office, said that consent for the Union is "clearly fraying, particularly in Scotland".
He added that: “It's not sustainable in the long-term to have around 50% of the people in one part of a territory of the UK expressing a wish to leave it."
At the same session, Ciaran Martin, former constitution director in the Cabinet Office, commented that the Tory government's line that “now is not the time” for a second independence referendum cannot hold, adding that ministers need to set out "if not this, what?"
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Tommy Sheppard MP (above), the SNP's constitutional affairs spokesperson, said: "The people of Scotland have delivered a cast-iron mandate for a fresh independence referendum when the Covid crisis has passed and it is undemocratic and unsustainable for Boris Johnson to seek to block their right to decide their future.
"Warnings from former senior Whitehall figures - including those at the heart of policy around the union and constitution - must serve as a reality check for the Tory government.
“The longer the Tories ignore democracy the clearer it becomes that this is anything but a union of equals.
“The reality is that Scotland is increasingly vulnerable under the control of Tory governments we don’t vote for. It's clear that the only way to secure Scotland's recovery and to keep us safe from the long-term damage of Tory austerity and Brexit is to become an independent country."
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