SHE’S been on the Scottish Parliament campaign trail for weeks while running her own push for Westminster. Going by last week’s Holyrood election results, the odds are in SNP candidate Anum Qaisar-Javed’s favour ahead of this week’s Airdrie and Shotts by-election. The vacancy opened up when the SNP’s Neil Gray resigned from the seat to stand in for the Scottish Parliament. He was successful, as was every other SNP constituency candidate in North Lanarkshire. The local authority area, once solidly Labour red, is once again completely yellow – voters elected five separate SNP MSPs, including Clare Adamson, Jamie Hepburn, Fulton MacGregor and Stephanie Callaghan.
Indyref2: Poll finds just 12 per cent of Scots want focus on new vote
A poll conducted on the eve of the Holyrood election has found that 50 per cent of voters want the next Scottish Government to focus on the NHS and social care, with the economy and jobs being the next priority – and a second independence referendum coming eighth on the list.
Sunday, 9th May 2021, 1:43 pm
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks to the media during a visit to Airdrie the day after her party won a fourth consecutive election.
Nicola Sturgeon has told how she hopes she will be the First Minister to deliver independence for Scotland – despite a key ally of the Prime Minister insisting it is not appropriate for another referendum to be held.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove indicated the UK Government would not seek to block a second Scottish independence referendum in the courts.
However, he also insisted the SNP’s failure to win an overall majority in Thursday’s Holyrood election meant the people of Scotland were not “agitating” for a referendum.
His comments came after the SNP secured a record fourth term in government in Edinburgh, with Ms Sturgeon’s party winning 64 seats – one more than in 2016 but critically one short of a majority in the Scottish Parliament.
Nicola Sturgeon has told the Prime Minister that a second vote on Scottish independence should be a “matter of when – not if”.
The SNP leader, who has just led her party to a fourth successive Holyrood election victory, made her position clear in telephone call with Boris Johnson.
It comes after Scotland returned a majority of MSPs supporting independence to Holyrood, with 64 SNP representatives and eight from the Scottish Greens.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to Ms Sturgeon on the phone on Sunday (Tony Melville/PA)
However, Ms Sturgeon and the SNP failed to win an overall majority in the Parliament – with a key ally of Boris Johnson arguing that this showed Scots were not “agitating” for a referendum.
Sturgeon tells Johnson it is ‘when not if’ for a second Scottish independence vote
The Scottish First Minister spoke to Boris Johnson by phone on Sunday after the SNP’s victory in the Holyrood election. By Press Association Sunday 9 May 2021, 7:04 PM May 9th 2021, 7:04 PM 18,748 Views 53 Comments
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the Prime Minister that it was ‘when not if’ for a second independence referendum
Image: PA
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the Prime Minister that it was ‘when not if’ for a second independence referendum
Image: PA
NICOLA STURGEON HAS told the UK Prime Minister that a second vote on Scottish independence should be a “matter of when – not if”.