DAVID Cameron has “no right” to rule out another referendum on independence, says Nicola Sturgeon.
On the day that the SNP’s new MPs travelled to Westminster for the first time, the First Minister said that she was not planning a referendum soon – and that any decision to have another referendum would be made by the people of Scotland.
Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women, the First Minister said: “We had that debate, that vote, last year, and Scotland, against my better efforts, voted to stay part of the UK, to stay part of the Westminster system”. The SNP’s responsibility now, said Sturgeon, was to make that system work better for Scotland and for the rest of the UK.
She continued: “I’m not planning another referendum. And you’re absolutely right, 50 per cent of Scots didn’t vote SNP and I’m very conscious of my responsibility to speak for them. Loads of people who voted SNP voted No in the referendum last year and would vote No again if there was a referendum tomorrow.”
Host Jane Moore asked Sturgeon to guarantee there would be no referendum in the next five years.
“Why I stop short of saying I guarantee it, it’s the same reason that I don’t think David Cameron has any right to rule it out. Whether there’s another referendum or not is down to what people in Scotland want. There can’t be another referendum unless people vote for it.”
The interview on Loose Women was, the First Minister said, only half jokingly, the “scariest interview” she had had to do.
Sturgeon was pressed on her working relationship with Alex Salmond and how she deals with having her hair and clothes and appearance all judged and criticised by media.
Sturgeon said that press criticism on how she looks no longer bothered her and that she was using it to her advantage.
“I almost take a positive from it,” she said, “if people are going to comment on what I wear then I’m going to use it to promote young Scottish designers and promote Scottish talent”.
The First Minister did say that she was a bit worried about the message it sent out to other women who might be interested in politics.
“What annoys me, or worries me, most about it is that I’m used to reading pretty derogatory things about myself in the newspapers about how I look and my hair and all that kind of stuff. For me it’s water off a duck’s back. It worries me that younger women, who might be thinking about going into politics, they’ll read that about me and think, ‘You know what? I don’t fancy being in the firing line.’”
The best way to address it, Sturgeon said, was to get more women into politics.
Moore asked about the SNP leader’s relationship with Alex Salmond, and talked about the photo of Sturgeon and the 56 SNP MPs in front of the Forth Bridge.
“It reminded me of a wedding picture,” said Moore, “and he’s sort of at the back, like the irritable cousin you don’t really want to have at the wedding. You don’t mention each other very much.”
Sturgeon flatly denied any rift, saying: “I don’t think that’s true, to be fair. I’ve worked with Alex for 25 years. He’s been a mentor to me, so much of what I know about how to be a politician I’ve learned from him. We’re great colleagues. We’re great friends.
“The media are desperate to suggest that there are great splits between me and Alex. There aren’t. What he said at the weekend about independence wasn’t very controversial. He said he thinks Scotland will be independent and that he thinks it will be in his lifetime. I hope both of those things are true.”
During the chat, Sturgeon also admitted that she’d been given a lesson on projecting her voice from SNP celebrity backer Sir Sean Connery.
After the live interview, the First Minister then hot-footed it from the ITV studios to the House of Commons, for a photocall with her 56 MPs as they started their first day on the job.
A huge press pack turned out to see the new members.
Salmond joked: “When I was last here we had to run around to look like a crowd – now we are a crowd.”
When he was asked how we would adjust to being a backbencher after being First Minister he said: “I loved being First Minister but everything has its time and I think things are turning out not too badly.”
The SNP parliamentary group have their first meeting tomorrow, when the party will vote on who their group leader will be. Angus Robertson has confirmed that he would like to stand again for the position he has held since 2007.
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