NICOLA Sturgeon has insisted no deal has been done with Jeremy Corbyn to put Labour into power after next month’s General Election.
Speaking at a campaign event in Dundee, the First Minister said the discussions she has had in recent months with the Labour leader were over Brexit and not about brokering a deal between the two parties.
Sturgeon has repeatedly said Labour would have to agree to another independence referendum in Scotland in exchange for support from SNP MPs.
Yesterday, the First Minister insisted the two leaders had not met during the election campaign.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon not impressed with PM candidates
Her comments come after Boris Johnson told the ITV election debate on Tuesday that a deal may have already been struck between her and the Labour leader.
Echoing the views expressed by her Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf yesterday, the SNP leader said she believed a Labour government would issue the Section 30 order needed to hold a second independence vote. “There is no deal with Jeremy Corbyn. The conversations I’ve had with Jeremy Corbyn in recent months, the most recent was just before the election was called in Westminster, have been about Brexit,” Sturgeon said.
“It was about how the opposition parties were trying to come together to stop Brexit and find a better way forward.”
She added if the Labour Party needed the votes from the SNP, Corbyn would not turn down a deal.
“As Humza Yousaf said, I do believe that, if the parliamentary arithmetic enables this, then Jeremy Corbyn is not going to turn his back on a UK Labour government just because he is determined to block the right of the Scottish people to choose their own future,” the FM said. “It would take a lot of explaining from him if he was to say ‘no, I’m going to walk away from that opportunity ... because I want to veto Scotland’s right to self-determination’.”
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Sturgeon then claimed that the Labour leader “favours self-determination for virtually every other country on the face of the planet”, adding it would be “a bit odd” if he was to reject SNP pleas for an independence vote.
The FM insisted she “wasn’t asking for anything unreasonable”.
“I’m not asking Labour to suddenly support independence, I’m not even demanding that Labour MSPs in the Scottish Parliament vote for an independence referendum,” she said. “I’m simply making the point that we shouldn’t find it difficult to get Westminster politicians to accept that the question of independence, the question of another referendum and on what timescale, are decisions for the people of Scotland through our democratically elected parliament.”
On a visit to Scotland, Cabinet Minister Michael Gove ruled out the prospect of the First Minister being granted a second independence referendum – even if the SNP win a majority at Holyrood in 2021.
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He said such a vote would be a “waste of time” and a “distraction”, insisting the SNP should instead be focusing on dealing with problems in Scotland’s hospitals and improving the education system.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster argued another ballot on the issue should not be allowed to take place as it would contribute to eroding trust in politicians, citing previous pledges from SNP leaders that the 2014 referendum would be a “once in a lifetime event”.
Gove’s comments come after Alister Jack, the Secretary of State for Scotland, appeared to suggest an SNP majority in the next Holyrood election could give rise to a mandate.
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