A FORMER Scottish secretary who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government claims Scotland has “no basic justification” for holding another independence referendum.

Despite the Smith Commission, signed by the Unionist parties and stating there is nothing stopping Scotland from becoming an independent nation in the future, Malcolm Rifkind argued it was agreed that the 2014 vote was a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity.

His comment comes just a day after former PM David Cameron used the same debunked phrase.

Speaking to Newsnight, former Tory MP Rifkind said it didn’t matter than Scotland had voted by 62% to remain in the EU but was being taken out against its will.

The SNP have often used Brexit as an example of changed circumstances from the last vote six years ago today.

He told the BBC programme: “Of course things change, things change every year. You cant just say because things change each year – the commitment that it’s a once-in-a-generation suddenly disappears.

“We know that the nationalists would keep wanting referendums until they won one if they did. And that would be the last referendum we’d ever have on the question of independence.”

Rifkind also argue that Brexit is a poor example of Scotland’s democratic will being overridden because London wanted to stay in the EU too.

He said: “One fundamental flaw in the nationalist argument, on that very point, is the nationalists like to say Scotland voted to Remain, England nevertheless dragged us out of the European Union.

“The fact is there were two major parts of the UK that voted Remain and didn’t get their way. One was Scotland, and the other was London! Almost by exactly the same margins. This is not a north/south divide, the fact is the United Kingdom is divided in all sorts of ways.”

He said Brexit was not the only reason people voted to stay in the UK, arguing there were many factors at play.

“The vast majority of people, the 55% of people who voted to stay in the United Kingdom, did so because that was part of their identity,” he said without citing any evidence for the claim.

“Identity doesn’t just apply to nationalists. I and the vast majority of people who are Scots think of themselves as British as well as Scottish. That is part of my identity.”

The presenter asked if he felt he should have a vote in a future referendum despite living in England, for which he said there was a “powerful argument” to be made.

Support for Scottish independence is currently sitting between 53% and 55%, while the SNP is on track to win a majority at next year’s Holyrood election.

Yesterday, SNP MP Philippa Whitford hit back at Cameron’s claims that there should not be a future vote on the Union.

She said the idea that “some rhetorical phrase takes away the right of the Scottish people” just doesn’t make sense. Jeremy Corbyn and Johnson, she argued, both claimed the 2019 General Election was a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity.

“Are we not supposed to have elections for the next 20 years?” she asked.