It’s time for Westminster to take on the SNP

There will not be a legally binding referendum on Scottish independence next year. It’s important to bear this in mind when chewing over Nicola Sturgeon’s latest pronouncement. The SNP leader held a press conference on Tuesday morning to publish a paper on independence in advance of a plebiscite Sturgeon says will be held in 2023.

She claims a mandate for such a vote from the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, in which the SNP and Greens ran on pro-referendum manifestos and won a majority of seats between them. This is the same Sturgeon who, asked during that campaign what a voter who backed her for First Minister but didn’t want another referendum should do, replied: ‘They should vote for me on Thursday, safe in the knowledge that getting us through this crisis is my priority.’ More to the point, the Union is reserved to Westminster, not devolved to Holyrood. It is a logical and constitutional absurdity to claim that a mandate can be obtained at an election to one parliament for the exercise of powers held by another parliament.