NICOLA Sturgeon has slammed Tory plans to offer a vote on Scottish independence to Scots living in other parts of the UK.
Both the First Minister and Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie responded to a story that saw senior Tories suggest that people born in Scotland but now living in other parts of the UK should be given a vote in a second independence campaign.
She described this latest push to ramp up the pro-Union argument as an effort to “rig” the conditions for a second independence referendum.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson dismisses Tory plans for indyref2 on condition Scots in rUK can vote
Sturgeon tweeted: “I see the anti-independence campaign is trying to rig the rules of indyref2 again (tho in doing so they also concede that it’s going to happen). Maybe they should just argue their case on its merits and allow everyone who lives in Scotland to decide democracy.”
Harvie (above) added: “The Scottish Greens believe everyone who lives in Scotland over the age of 16 should have a right to vote in the independence referendum and take part in the debate over the country’s future. Extending that to those who do not live in Scotland would be profoundly undemocratic, and the proposal smacks of desperation from those who know they can’t win without gerrymandering.”
It was revealed earlier yesterday that senior Tories are urging Boris Johnson to allow Scots living in other parts of the UK to vote in another referendum. They are also pushing for Ruth Davidson to be appointed as a constitutional secretary.
Davidson stepped down as Scottish Tory leader and is expected to enter the House of Lords after being nominated for a peerage.
The new role would effectively make Davidson head of the pro-Union campaign.
A Tory Cabinet minister told The Times: “We know Sturgeon will start trying to force another referendum as soon as she thinks it is politically tenable again, so there are things we can and should do now to be ready for her.
“One thing is to open up eligibility of the vote to all Scots in the UK, not just those living in Scotland. The other is to bring Ruth back into the front line. She is the best pro-Union voice we have.”
Another senior Tory figure who was not named suggested that pro-Union voices need to take advantage of a supposed dip in support for independence in recent polling.
They said: “Independence is behind in the polls now, and Sturgeon is getting flak from her own side for not talking about it since the election. We need to get out there on the front foot and start acting like we’re ahead and not just wait for her to catch up again, which was the catastrophic mistake we made after the 2014 referendum.”
While the Yes vote had been ahead in Scottish independence polling throughout most of 2020, No took a narrow lead in some polls in the run-up to May’s Holyrood election.
It is estimated that about 800,000 people who were born in Scotland now live in England and up to 50,000 live in Wales.
Allowing Scots living elsewhere to have a say in an independence referendum was debated prior to the 2014 vote. Tories claim there is precedent for it considering the decision to allow British citizens living overseas a vote in the 2016 EU referendum.
Boris Johnson’s government have dismissed a proposal by senior Tories to agree to a second independence referendum on the condition that Scots living in the rest of the UK can vote too.
Cabinet ministers are pushing the Prime Minister to increase the chances of saving the Union by allowing Scots living anywhere in the UK to vote in a second independence referendum.
But the suggestion was yesterday rejected by Johnson’s government.
In January this year the Prime Minister indicated there should not be another vote until around 2055 – some 41 years after the referendum in 2014.
Asked by The National if ministers would agree to a new vote so long as the franchise was extended to Scots living elsewhere in the UK, a UK Government spokeswoman said: “The sole priority of the UK Government is on continuing to roll out the UK’s life-saving vaccine programme and recovering from this health and economic emergency.
“It is our duty and our responsibility to focus entirely on Covid recovery. That is what people in Scotland, rightly, expect.”
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