NICOLA Sturgeon has been branded "hugely irresponsible" by a UK Government insider for "walking away" from the intergovernmental Brexit process following her call for another independence referendum.
The senior source claimed it was now clear the First Minister had simply used the Brexit process, which have included meetings of the Joint Ministerial Committee between the UK Government and the devolved administrations, to further the independence cause.
"She has never been interested in working with the UK Government in delivering the best Brexit deal for Scotland and the whole of the UK," he declared.
His comments came as it was made clear Theresa May's non-committal line - she has not yet said whether or not she will concede to Ms Sturgeon's call for the UK Government to facilitate a second poll - would hold for the time being.
However, it is difficult to see how this can be maintained, not least when Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, has the ability to quiz the Prime Minister in the Commons on Wednesday.
The insider explained there had been many areas of common ground between London and Edinburgh in the pre-Brexit talks such as on the protection of workers' rights.
"This has always been about independence for the First Minister and today she was not speaking as First Minister but as the leader of the SNP; her constitutional tunnel vision has come to the fore. It's absolutely irresponsible."
He went on: "A second referendum would be damaging, divisive and a huge distraction from the priority of securing the best Brexit deal."
READ MORE: SNP raise £30,000 in less than two hours for next Scottish independence referendum fight
The insider added that Ms Sturgeon had "hid behind a cloak of vagueness" on what she was proposing an independent Scotland would do on the issue of membership of the EU and on its currency.
He pointed out how if Scotland voted Yes on the FM's timescale, then Scotland would be extracting itself from the UK as the UK was leaving the EU; that is, an independent Scotland would, for an unknown period, be outside both unions.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel