AN unelected lord faces criticism after demanding new eligibility rules for a second Scottish independence referendum.
During a Politics Live discussion on indyref2, former Times editor Lord Finkelstein conceded another vote "probably" will happen – but insisted the rules should be different this time.
His comments came after George Galloway and Michael Gove discussed changing indyref2 voting criteria to include people born in Scotland but now living elsewhere.
In the 2014 independence referendum, all EU or Commonwealth citizens living in Scotland and over the age of 16 could vote. The Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020 features the same rules.
READ MORE: Scottish independence: Michael Gove sparks anger with voting rights comment
Speaking to the BBC programme, Lord Finkelstein said: “There are lots of people who engaged with the question of whether the United Kingdom continues, and obviously the people of Scotland are one of the largest groups in that decision but they’re not the only group.
“It’s right that actually the UK Parliament has some sort of, has the power over the decision about whether we have a referendum.
“My view is we just recently had a referendum. One of the reasons why I opposed the second referendum on Brexit is because of the precedent it would set. You can’t keep asking people the question then decide you’re going to do it again until you get the right answer.
“If they do have that referendum that’s something that everybody who was born in Scotland and has eligibility to be in the Scottish state, should have a right to have a say”
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) September 2, 2020
Tory Lord Finkelstein on new Scottish independence referendum#politicslive https://t.co/p5QD59ye2G pic.twitter.com/ZxRs60zPie
“What the SNP want to do is keep on having referendums until one of them comes up trumps. My view is you have referendums, they are once in a generation things.
“Now there’s also the politics of this. I do understand you can’t simply forever say to the Scottish elected government you can’t have … my view is if they do have that referendum that’s also something that everybody who was born in Scotland has eligibility to be in the Scottish state should have a right to have a say on as well.”
Later he agreed there “probably will” be a referendum but there needs to be an “argument about eligibility for voting” first.
Germans for ScotRef quickly pointed out the irony in the Tory peer explaining how voting should work.
The group wrote on Twitter: “An unelected Lord suddenly keen on electoral franchise ..”
An unelected Lord suddenly keen on electoral franchise...... 🤦♂️ https://t.co/yNLpB1fDp0
— Germans for ScotRef (@Germans4indyref) September 2, 2020
SSP member Scott Macdonald had a similar take, writing: “No lectures on democracy from the unelected ermine, if you please.”
Meanwhile, Lloyd Melville noted a different approach from the Tories to what we saw in 2016, posting: “These folk didn’t even want EU nationals resident in the UK to vote in the EU referendum. This is a transparently political suggestion.”
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