NICOLA Sturgeon will tell MSPs that they have a “duty to protect the values that people in Scotland voted for” at last week’s election.
In a statement to Holyrood this afternoon, the First Minister will say last Thursday’s vote was a “watershed moment for Scotland with the country backing “the proposition that they should be given a say on their own future”.
Her speech to MSPs comes ahead of the publication of the Scottish Government’s “democratic case for the transfer of power to hold a referendum on Scotland’s future” and the final stage of the SNP’s Referendums Bill on Thursday.
It also comes as senior figures in Scottish Labour are increasingly split over the party’s position on indyref2.
READ MORE: Scots have ‘every right’ to indyref2, says Jordi Cuixart
Speaking ahead of the statement, Sturgeon said voters last week were faced with “a clear and distinct choice, and they made their verdict clear – they have rejected a Tory Government, said No to Brexit and endorsed the proposition that they should be given a say on their own future”.
She added: “That position is increasingly winning support from across the political spectrum, including from senior and prominent members of the Scottish Labour Party, who may not yet back independence but who recognise the fundamental democratic principle which is now at stake.
“In 1992 when we were also facing the prospect of a fourth Tory government with no mandate in Scotland there was a coming together of parties, communities and civic Scotland.
“That resulted in the establishment of this Parliament, which has achieved much. But this new wave of Brexiteer Tories with a mission to reshape Scotland and the UK in their right-wing image presents a new danger – one that very few would have predicted at the dawn of devolution.
“So I hope in the coming days and weeks we will see a similar coming together around the idea of Scotland’s right to choose.”
The First Minister said her government’s mandate for an independence referendum was “stronger than any mandate Boris Johnson claims for his Brexit deal”. She added: “The Scottish Parliament has a duty to protect the values that people in Scotland voted for. I believe we can only fully do that with independence, and that is why later this week, I will take the next steps to secure Scotland’s right to choose.”
READ MORE: Scottish independence: The marches taking place in 2020
In yesterday’s National we told of how Richard Leonard was looking at the possibility of backing a second referendum after a series of senior Scottish Labour figures threw their weight behind a new vote.
Monica Lennon, the party’s Holyrood health spokeswoman, former MP Ged Killen, and MSP Neil Findlay all urged the party to think again about its position on the constitution.
But yesterday Anas Sarwar, who previously challenged Leonard for the leadership, disagreed, saying the party would not benefit from “rash pronouncements on indyref2”.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote: “I see some ‘key figures’ in @scottishlabour are jumping to join the false choice of Boris’s Britain vs Sturgeon’s Scotland.
“This does nothing to reject the divisive visions of both & hold together those that believe in the principles of unity, solidarity, equality & redistribution.
“Our members are heartbroken by the result, they are thinking of those that have lost their jobs so close to Christmas (more than just MPs) and are feeling angry that our party has let down the millions of people that needed a credible and electable Labour Party in government.
READ MORE: Labour’s 50% turnout plan for Indyref2020 rejected by committee
“Rather than making rash pronouncements on #indyref2, I think we need a genuine period of reflection and some humility from those who led us to our worst EU election result and worst General Election result in living memory.”
Labour MSP Daniel Johnson said a pro-independence majority at the Holyrood elections in 2021 should be the electoral litmus test that prompts the next referendum on the Union.
The former Labour justice spokesman tweeted: “You cant say ‘never again’.” He went on to say that although he disagrees with independence and would campaign against it, a Holyrood vote “would be a clear mandate consistent with the circumstance that led to the last referendum”.
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