Nicola Sturgeon to park plans for second independence referendum - report
1 min read
Nicola Sturgeon will this week scrap the SNP’s plans for a second Scottish independence referendum to take place within the next two years, according to a newspaper report today.
The Daily Record says the First Minister will announce that she will not press for another vote, and will instead focus on arguing for continued membership of the European single market once the UK has left the European Union.
The decision was taken after an SNP national executive committee meeting in which all members agreed that the referendum question had cost the party in the recent general election.
The SNP lost 21 seats from its 2015 tally on 8 June, including the high-profile scalps of Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson.
In March, Ms Sturgeon announced plans for a second referendum between late 2018 and spring 2019, to give Scots the chance to choose between independence or the reformed terms of the EU.
But she will make a statement ditching the timetable this week, according to the Record.
“Doing everything possible to help achieve a soft Brexit for the UK as a whole or Scotland is the priority,” a senior SNP source told the paper.
“People can judge on the other side of the negotiations what they want to do about independence.
“Presenting the issue as a choice we can exercise in future works – as does describing independence as an insurance policy.”
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