THE issue of Scottish independence has been settled for the next 30 years David Cameron has suggested as Nicola Sturgeon said she would make the decision on holding a second referendum “in due course”.

After David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, repeated his call for the First Minister to “come clean” on whether or not she would include a commitment to hold a second poll in the SNP’s 2016 Holyrood manifesto, Ms Sturgeon responded to her precedessor Alex Salmond’s assertion that a second referendum was “inevitable”.

Speaking during a trade visit to China, she stressed there could not be a referendum, nor indeed independence, unless a majority of people in Scotland clearly wanted that.

In Jakarta, Indonesia, where he is meeting officials, Mr Cameron indicated that any decision by the Holyrood Government to unilaterally decide to hold a second referendum would not be legitimate.

The FM explained: "It will be my ultimate decision, in line with the democratic decision-making processes of the SNP, to determine whether or not there is a commitment to a second referendum in the SNP manifesto for the Scottish election.

 

"And in due course we will take that decision and take that decision based on what we consider to be in the best interests of the country."

Mr Cameron said later: "I think it is important that a referendum is legal and fair and properly constituted and that's what we had and it was deceisive so I don't see the need for another one."

Asked what would happen if Scotland legislated for a referendum alone, he said: "I took a very clear approach that these things must be legitimate and that's my view."

The Prime Minister’s spokeswoman was also asked to give Mr Cameron’s view on Mr Salmond’s assertion, to which she said the PM believed “the matter has been settled for a generation”.

The widely-accepted definition of a generation is the period between the birth of a person and the time they have children. The average age of first-time mothers across the UK has now hit 30.

Despite Ms Sturgeon’s non-committal remarks, pressure is growing within party ranks for the leader to announce at the SNP’s Aberdeen conference in October that she will include a form of words in the 2016 manifesto to keep open the option of a second referendum within the next five years.

Derek Mackay, the SNP Chairman and business convener for the conference, echoed Mr Salmond’s sentiment about the inevitability of a second poll but stressed that “at this point in time” the circumstances were not right for one.

"I'm not going to speculate about what is going to be in the manifesto. We will certainly talk about independence because we still believe in it and, of course, we think that is the right way to go and that is the direction of travel; more powers and ultimately independence for Scotland," he said.

George Kerevan, the MP for East Lothian, has claimed there is a growing mood for another poll and that it was the subject of constant chatter among Nationalist colleagues at Westminster,
“It is an issue that cannot be ignored,” he declared. “The best thing would be for the leadership to come forward with some proposals on how to deal with it. It cannot be left until the campaigning season is well under way. We need clarity,” added the backbencher.

Earlier this month, when asked whether or not he believed there would be another referendum before 2020, Angus MacNeil, the Nationalist MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, told Total Politics magazine without hesitation: “Yes”.

For Labour, Ian Murray stressed: "Everyone agreed back in September when the referendum happened that this would be a once-in-a-generation opportunity, even a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"So to suggest that this may be in the SNP manifesto in just a few months' time would be wrong."

The Shadow Scottish Secretary noted: "What Derek Mackay didn't commit to was that it wouldn't be in the 2016 Scottish parliamentary election manifesto for the SNP."