KEIR Starmer has said there shouldn’t be an independence referendum in the next parliamentary term.
The Labour leader is visiting Scotland this week and made the comments during an interview with STV.
Starmer was asked for his views on the constitutional question, and although he said that it is a matter for “the people of Scotland” he still waded in on the timing.
Starmer said: “It is a question for the people of Scotland. That isn’t a principle that any of us quarrel with.
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“It has to be a matter for the people of Scotland, I don’t quarrel with that principle.
“What I am saying is that the priorities at the moment are the recovery from the pandemic.”
It comes as Starmer told politicians north of the border to focus on the "really pressing priorities" of Covid and climate change, not an independence referendum.
He continued: “The priority has to be the recovery, that is uppermost in people’s minds.
Starmer told Scottish politicians to focus on recovery, not independence
“And it was only a few weeks ago that every party going into that election said it should be the priority.”
Asked whether the UK Parliament should have the right to veto a second referendum, he said: “Well, that’s the current arrangement in Westminster.”
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Starmer added: “Stepping back from that, the question about the future of Scotland, it’s obviously a question for the Scottish people.”
Pressed on when an appropriate time would be for a referendum to be held, he responded: “When we have come through the recovery and started to grapple with some of the issues in relation to climate change.
“For the lifetime of this Parliament, we should be concentrating on the recovery.”
“But I am frustrated that there is a burning issue, which is what is the future of those communities and those jobs in the north east of Scotland and nobody is addressing that.
The Labour leader is visiting Scotland this week
“The SNP promised thousands of jobs in the wind sector, they’ve delivered about one in 20.
“And the constitutional issue is a way of diverting focus from some of the very real concerns that we have here in Scotland that affect people in their everyday lives and affect probably the next generation of jobs in places like the north east of Scotland.”
When he was asked about a potential legal challenge to any future referendum, Starmer said that politics should be kept out of the courts.
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He said: “I have never thought that politics should involve going to court.
“I think politics should be kept out of the courts, and I say that as a former lawyer.
“Politics should be fought in the political arena and I’m sure that’s where in the end it will be fought.”
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