The Scottish government intends to hold a second independence referendum in October 2023, Angus Robertson said.
“The Prime Minister made it clear yesterday that he intends to make an announcement in the Scottish Parliament in the coming weeks on the roadmap to the referendum, which we intend to hold next October,” Robertson told Good Morning Scotland (GMS). ) Wednesday. .
Asked about the possible route to indyref2 if Holyrood is denied a Section 30 order, which would give him the powers to hold a second ballot, Robertson stood with his lips firm.
“I see no reason for the UK government to deny an Article 30 order,” he said. “I think most of your listeners will be aware that this is the procedure that was agreed in the run-up to the 2014 independence referendum, the golden standard for holding a recognized and agreed constitutional referendum.”
The SNP minister added: “I will not speculate on what happens a few steps later, we still have a chance to get an Article 30 order.
“Scottish politics has a long history of UK governments saying ‘no, no, no, yes’. This is what happened before the 2014 referendum and I still think we should work on the gold standard of democracy ”.
He also denied suggestions that the Scottish government’s timetable for a second referendum was unrealistic. Robertson said: “I am totally pleased with the brochure that is starting to be published, with the announcements that will follow on the roadmap, on how this will be achieved, that we have a perfectly appropriate window of opportunity so much so that the legislation will be passed. , so that people have the opportunity to scrutinize the prospectus that the Scottish government will publish and also hold accountable to opponents. ”
It comes after a UK government minister stated that the vote could not be held until 2039.
Commonwealth leader Mark Spencer told lawmakers that a gap of more than 25 years was needed before the matter could be reconsidered after the first vote in 2014.
But Robertson turned down that suggestion when asked about his comments on GMS.
“I sigh and sigh,” the Secretary of the Constitution, Foreign Affairs and Culture replied.
“Really thinking about what this means is someone who has not been elected in Scotland, who represents a government that has not been returned to Scotland since 1955, telling the people of Scotland what they can and cannot do.
“We are in the territory of denying democracy when I hear things like that.”
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Robertson went on to make “no different remarks” about Scottish Conservative President Craig Hoy, who had appeared on the show early in the morning.
The MSP insisted that the Scottish government does not have a mandate for a second referendum because the SNP did not get an absolute majority, even though voters chose a majority of pro-independence MSPs in general.
“We held an independence referendum in 2014. That referendum was clear. And the SNP said that this referendum would be held on the basis that it was once per generation. ”
Roberston rejected the allegations, citing a renewed term as a result of the 2021 Holyrood election.[He is] someone who when he ran in last year’s election was defeated and finished third in East Lothian, on BBC Radio Scotland giving a lecture to the electorate on what they accepted or did not accept in the election.
Today, after failing to vote in the constituency, he was elected to Parliament in the regional list voting in the south of Scotland.
The Scottish Tory MSP later accused the Scottish government of a “shameful breach of duty” in planning a second referendum.
In a statement in response to Roberson’s announcement, Hoy said: “Nicola Sturgeon has been close to approving a plan to go ahead with an illegal vote and Angus Robertson has doubled it today.
“This reckless push for another referendum will hurt Scotland when all the focus should be on the recovery of Covid and the global cost of living crisis.”
Sarah Boyack, a spokeswoman for the Labor constitution in Holyrood, said that talking about a referendum next October was “nothing more than a cake in Angus Robertson’s sky.”
Boyack said: “Thousands of Scots are facing the choice between warming up and eating, and the best thing this SNP government can do is take dates off its hat for another divisive referendum.”
A former adviser to both Alex Salmond and Sturgeon questioned whether the referendum could be delivered in October next year.
Campbell Gunn, who was a special adviser to Salmond and later Sturgeon, said “the time scale is very difficult.”
He told GMS: “We are now 15, 16 months from when the referendum is likely to take place, we do not have an Article 30 order, it will probably end up in the courts. I just don’t see the time scale that works for the SNP. ”
Roberston would not be drawn to the Scottish government’s specific plans if Downing Street again refused to grant a Rule 30 order for a second referendum.
SNP MP Stewart Hosie said Tuesday night that Holyrood ministers “have in mind” a path to a legal referendum if Boris Johnson keeps saying no.
He said he was “confident” that the Scottish government had a plan B and insisted there was a “different route” if the prime minister decided “not to be a Democrat”.
The Prime Minister, along with Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie, fired the indyref2 campaign on Tuesday morning as they launched a series of new documents endorsing an independent Scotland.
Sturgeon insisted that a referendum be held with or without a Section 30 order, while Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross vowed to boycott any “wild” ballot.