UK Edition
Theresa May tells Scots: Use council elections to show Nicola Sturgeon you oppose indy ref 2
Theresa May has urged voters across Scotland to use upcoming local government elections to send a “clear message” to Nicola Sturgeon that they do not want another independence referendum.
The Prime Minister argued that Scots should back the Conservatives on May 4 to demonstrate their opposition to a rerun of the 2014 vote and rejected Ms Sturgeon’s claim that the Brexit vote shows the Union is not a partnership of equals.
Despite 62 per cent of Scots backing Remain in the EU referendum, she argued that every voter across the UK “had an equal say and the collective answer was final.”
Ms Sturgeon’s ministers have accused Mrs May of ignoring them as she prepares her negotiating stance for the Brexit negotiations with Brussels but she said there was “considerable common ground” on issues such as wanting the widest possible free trade agreement.
Her intervention comes ahead of this week’s Scottish Conservative conference, which the Prime Minister is expected to address on Friday.
Jeremy Corbyn used his keynote speech at Scottish Labour’s gathering in Perth to state there was “no appetite” for a second independence referendum and urged the Nationalists to accept the Brexit result.
He warned that a separate Scotland in the EU would mean having a hard border with England and joining the euro. Ms Sturgeon is expected to clarify her intentions regarding a second independence referendum at next month’s SNP conference.
But, writing in Holyrood magazine, the Prime Minister said: “We will also be looking forward to the local elections in May, when voters across Scotland will have the chance to send a clear message to the SNP that they do not want a second independence referendum, by voting Scottish Conservative and Unionist on 4 May.”
The SNP has repeatedly argued that Scots are being dragged out of the EU against their will but Mrs May described the UK as a “partnership of equal citizens”
She said: “When we take decisions on a UK-basis, whether in a referendum or a general election, every individual has an equal voice.
“So in June last year, when the UK as a whole was asked if we should leave or remain in the European Union, every voter had an equal say and the collective answer was final.”
Mrs May said the Joint Ministerial Committee has allowed the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to have direct input into her Brexit negotiating stance.
Rejecting SNP claims she is ignoring the SNP administration, she said: “We all want the freest possible trade in goods and services between the UK and the EU’s member states. This will be delivered through a new, comprehensive, bold and ambitious free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the EU.”
Mr Corbyn used his keynote speech to a half-full Perth Concert Hall to argue that “we cannot simply wish away the result” of the EU referendum and warned the Nationalists are using it as “leverage” for a second independence referendum.
Demanding that the SNP respect the result of the 2014 and 2016 votes, the Labour leader said: “People don’t like the fact that an independent Scotland that stays in the EU … would mean joining the euro and having a hard border with the rest of Britain.
“Neither do they like the idea of giving back powers to Brussels that they have just got back, for example in agriculture and fisheries.”
Mr Corbyn argued that “the links between Scotland and the rest of the UK are far deeper and stronger than those between the UK and the EU” and warned that independence would only “amplify the harm of a brutal Tory Brexit” and leave Scots with the same problems they have now.
Arguing the SNP’s case has weakened since the 2014 referendum, he said the collapse in the oil price had “exposed the folly of building an economy dominated by oil production.”
An SNP spokesman said: “There is already a cast-iron democratic mandate for an independence referendum – that was delivered in last year’s Holyrood election, however much the Tories might try to deny it.
“The Prime Minister couldn’t be more wrong to suggest there is considerable common ground between her government and the Scottish Government on Brexit.”
Angus Robertson MP, the SNP’s deputy leader, said: “Jeremy Corbyn has made it clear that he and his party are washing their hands of any attempt to listen to the overwhelming democratic will of the people of Scotland.
“That is grossly disrespecting the wishes of the Scottish electorate, and shows how deeply out of touch with Scottish opinion Labour have become.”