Sturgeon warns Prime Minister she is not bluffing on indyref2

Ms Sturgeon told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that the key issue now was about finding “compromise ground” on achieving practical solutions to overcome the difficulties of the complex issue of Brexit.

“If we are going to get into the practical discussion about how these things can be overcome, we first have to have a UK Government that’s going to meet the Scottish Government half-way to try to discuss that. I’m compromising. I’m prepared to compromise. I need to have a UK Government that’s prepared to do likewise.”

Noting how many in her party would want so-called indyref2 tomorrow, she went on: “I am trying to act as First Minister to see if there is compromise ground but if we are in a position, where I am doing that but we have a prime minister and UK Government saying no compromise, Scotland just has to shut up and like it or lump it, then the question for Scotland – and it’s a much more fundamental question than the EU or Brexit – is are we happy with that; are we happy to have no voice in the UK, to simply have to accept the direction of travel that an increasingly right-wing UK Government wants to impose upon us.”

Stressing how the argument for independence was “much bigger than the European Union,” she said that if Scotland secured continued membership of the single market, then the issue of independence would not go away but the nation would “not have to have that decision within the timescale of Brexit”.

When it was suggested Whitehall believed the SNP Government could not win another independence referendum and Ms Sturgeon was simply bluffing, the FM replied: “They will be making a big mistake if they think I am in any way bluffing...”

She went on: “If, on as something as fundamentally important as the membership of the EU and the single market and all the implications that has for us...we are going to be ignored, if our voice is going to be completely cast aside, our interests cast aside, then that can happen on anything.

“We have to ask ourselves in Scotland are we happy to have the direction of our country, the kind of country we want to be determined by a right-wing Conservative government, perhaps for the next 20 years, or do we want to take control of our own future and that’s a case in those circumstances it would be right for Scotland to have the opportunity to decide.”

Asked if indyref2 could be within the next five to 10 years, she replied: “Yes, if we are talking about a hard Brexit but I’m putting to Theresa May a compromise solution.”

Last month, the Scottish Government published its paper on “Scotland’s Place in Europe,” which set out options for how Scotland could stay in the single market if the rest of the UK left it. The paper will be discussed later this month at a regular meeting of the intergovernmental Joint Ministerial Committee, which will precede a plenary session chaired in No 10 by Mrs May.

January will also see the ruling by the UK Supreme Court on whether or not MPs as well as MSPs should have a vote on Whitehall’s Brexit strategy and a keynote speech by the PM on her Brexit plan for Britain.

Mrs May appeared on Sky News to insist she was “not muddled” on Brexit following criticism her government was by the former EU Commissioner Sir Ivan Rogers. The PM dodged questions about her government wanting the UK to remain in the single market, stressing only how the public had voted to take back control on immigration and wanted the best possible deal on trade with Europe.

But Ms Sturgeon told the Marr Show she said it was “increasingly of concern” that Mrs May had no clear Brexit plan as the country neared the triggering of Article 50 by the end of March.

Asked if she seriously thought there was no plan for withdrawal, Ms Sturgeon replied: “Yes. I say that with a lot of regret because that puts every part of the UK into a very powerless position. We saw that last week with the resignation of Sir Ivan Rogers; he didn’t know what the plan was and he was supposedly the man who would lead the negotiations to try to achieve that plan.

“My worry is that Theresa May, instead of behaving like a prime minister should, is putting the leadership of her own divided party ahead of her responsibilities as prime minister in trying to appease the increasingly right-wing Brexiteers in her own party instead of prioritising what would be a sensible solution for the UK to stay in the single market...The interests of the country over the next few months will have to come to the fore.”

In her interview, Ms Sturgeon accepted Brexit was a complex business but argued there were ways to overcome the obstacles and repeatedly stressed how she was trying to explore “common ground” given that Scotland had overwhelmingly voted for the UK to stay within the EU.

The FM said the Scottish Government’s options paper set out the practical ways of overcoming barriers, which involved devolving powers to Holyrood such as over immigration, pointing out how Canada and Australia operated “differential systems”.

She said on concerns over a hard border, the FM pointed to the desire not to have a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic and that Mrs May was already talking about employment checks.

On migration, Ms Sturgeon told Mr Marr: “We need to get away from the situation...where this obsession with immigration, almost becoming an obsession with foreigners in this country, is trumping...the best interests of the economy. We need a much more honest debate about the benefits of immigration to our economy.”

In response, Ruth Davidson said: “This week we’ve seen Nicola Sturgeon say that she was going to take a referendum off the table, only for her and Alex Salmond to put it back on the table again today.

“The SNP are where they’ve always been: trying desperately to use Brexit as a means of whipping up support for independence. They have failed.”

The Scottish Conservative leader urged the FM to “start acting in the interests of all Scots, not simply playing to her Nationalist base; that means ruling out another referendum to give Scottish business the certainty it needs, and to concentrate on clearing up her party’s own mess on education”.

Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, branded Ms Sturgeon’s remarks “yet another attempt by the SNP to sow division and uncertainty at a time when the country needs to pull together more than ever”. 
Ms Dugdale said that the FM on Friday had hinted that she was backing away from another vote, yet today she again threatened to impose a second independence referendum on the people of Scotland. 
"Nicola Sturgeon could provide much needed clarity on Scotland's future by ruling out another independence referendum altogether. With a growing crisis in our NHS and a shameful gap between the richest and the rest in our schools, the challenges facing Scotland are too great for the SNP government to be distracted by another referendum.
"With power returning from Brussels, it is now clear that we need a People's Constitutional Convention and a new Act of Union to reform where power lies across the whole of our country, and to save the Union from the threat of the SNP and the Tories who risk pulling it apart," she added.

Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, accused the SNP leader of being “all over the place on independence”.

He said: “One minute she backs off, the next she threatens to break up the UK. Nicola Sturgeon's inconsistent position is causing damaging uncertainty. She rightly criticises the Prime Minister for a lack of clarity on Brexit but the First Minister is making matters worse with a similar lack of clarity on independence. She should rule out another independence referendum as she promised only two years ago.

"The First Minister should get on with the day job: sorting out the NHS; education system and our police," he added.