NICOLA Sturgeon has told those who are unhappy at having to wait until the pandemic is over before a second independence referendum is held that “we need to recapture the spirit of 2014” if the vote is to succeed.

The SNP leader said during the party’s manifesto launch yesterday that pro-independence politicians and the wider Yes movement need to be able to campaign properly ahead of the vote, free from the restrictions that coronavirus had brought.

Sturgeon said that holding a vote before the Covid crisis is over would be a “dereliction of duty” in her role leading the country.

The party’s manifesto for the Scottish Parliament election on May 6 says that the party wants to hold a referendum in the first half of the parliamentary session, meaning a vote would take by the end of 2023.

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This is in stark contrast to the Alba Party, headed by former First Minister Alex Salmond. They are pushing for a super-majority of pro-independence MSPs to be elected and for a referendum to be held early in the new parliamentary term.

The manifesto Scotland’s Future, which has a full page dedicated to independence, states: “We want to give people in Scotland the right to choose their own future through an independence referendum.

“We propose that the referendum should be held once the Covid crisis has passed, but in good time to decide that we want to equip our Parliament with the powers it needs to drive our long-term recovery from Covid.”

Asked by The National what kind of signifiers the country would need to see before deciding the time is right to hold the vote, such as full vaccination or the adult population and infection rates, the First Minister said it was a combination of factors, judgement and would be for the Parliament to decide.

She said: “You know we’re living under incredible restrictions right now. They’re starting to ease and hopefully will ease more in the weeks to come, but even seeing it and we can’t just see it from the point of view from the Yes movement, we have to see it from the point of view of the country.

“But even if you were just looking at it from the point of view of the Yes movement, those of us who remember that spirit of the campaign in 2014, that’s what we want to be able to recreate, not campaign as we’re doing right now, when we can’t even properly speak to people on their doorsteps, we have to be physically distant.”

The Alba Party hit out at the SNP and Greens for not making a referendum an “immediate priority”.

Salmond said: “The SNP say a referendum may not be held until after 2023, the Greens say they’re willing to wait as long as 2026 – on those terms, Scotland would be looking at the prospect of not being able to secure independence any earlier than 2028.

“If that were to be the case, then it means the Scottish Parliament won’t be equipped with the powers it needs to drive our long-term recovery from Covid, but instead it will be Boris Johnson who decides how we recover for us.

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“This means several more years of governments the people of Scotland don’t vote for being imposed upon us. It means more than £200 billion will be spent on a new generation of weapons of mass destruction upon the Clyde and that Scotland’s government will have no say, none whatsoever, on the economic recovery from the coronavirus.”

However, Sturgeon, in a thinly veiled swipe at her former mentor, said that pushing for a referendum sooner might appeal to Yes voters but could push away No voters who are on the fence instead of winning them over.

She added: “If we don’t persuade more people than we did in 2014 then we won’t become independent.

“What they want firstly, is to know that those who advocate independence have the country’s best interests at heart at all times. And right now, having the country’s best interests at heart means leading it through a pandemic, they want to know they can have confidence in the case that’s put forward – and I think they want confidence in the kind of country we’re trying to build.

“If you want people who make the already converted feel more spirited about it, or you want someone who can hopefully do that and persuade the undecided, that’s what I’m offering.”