THE prospect of Nicola Sturgeon calling a second Scottish independence referendum after Brexit is “moonshine,” Nigel Farage has suggested.
Launching Ukip’s campaign battle bus in London, the party leader was asked if there was a threat to the United Kingdom from a second Scottish poll if people, as he wanted, voted to leave the EU on June 23.
“I simply don’t believe that,” he declared. “The idea that the UK votes for independence and Nicola Sturgeon tries to hold a referendum against independence, that amuses me to begin with.”
READ MORE: Sketch: Nigel Farage and the giant aubergine - Ukip launches its battle bus
Mr Farage believes that the SNP’s desire for Scotland to break from Britain while remaining in the Brussels bloc would not be true independence.
But when it was suggested that, if Scotland were dragged out of the EU on the back of votes south of the border, there would be enormous pressure on the First Minister to call a second Scottish poll, the Ukip MEP replied: “You mean a non-independence referendum. She would be voting against independence…This,” he emphasised, “is an independence referendum we’re having in the United Kingdom.”
Asked if he, therefore, believed Ms Sturgeon would not call a second Scottish referendum if the UK voted to leave the EU next month, Mr Farage said: “With oil at 45, 50 bucks a barrel, it’s moonshine. The Scottish people would not buy into that and the SNP know that too.”
READ MORE: Sketch: Nigel Farage and the giant aubergine - Ukip launches its battle bus
Meantime, Alex Salmond argued that if there were a Brexit vote, then a second Scottish independence referendum would take place within two years ie while Scotland was still negotiating its terms of the EU.
The former First Minister told AFP: “Nicola Sturgeon said if we get dragged out of Europe against our will that would be the change in material circumstances that could lead to another referendum.
"So if that circumstance came about, there will be an Out referendum; it will occur within the two years period.”
READ MORE: Sketch: Nigel Farage and the giant aubergine - Ukip launches its battle bus
The MP for Gordon added: “If you say to Scotland: ‘Look, we can be independent and within this European firmament or we can drift off into the North Atlantic with a Tory government.’ I think they'll choose independence.”
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