NICOLA Sturgeon’s decision to back another Brexit referendum will weaken the SNP’s hand and risk a future independence vote “for nothing”, one of her party’s most senior MPs has said.
Pete Wishart condemned the First Minister’s position as “little more than an open invitation to have our national view ignored and disrespected all over again”.
He spoke out after Ms Sturgeon said her MPs would back a so-called “People’s Vote” on the final Brexit deal if it was put to a Westminster vote.
Mr Wishart, the SNP’s longest-serving representative in Westminster, said he had “big concerns about supporting a second Brexit vote” and was particularly anxious about backing a new referendum “without any guarantees that our choice in Scotland will be respected”.
Writing in the pro-independence National newspaper, he said Scotland’s overwhelming vote to remain in the European Union was “totally ignored” in 2016.
He said: “To say that we will sign up to a referendum without any guarantee that our Scottish national voice will be at least acknowledged is little more than an open invitation to have our national view ignored and disrespected all over again.
“We are simply inviting all the indignities we are currently enduring to be replicated and refreshed.”
Mr Wishart, who chairs Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee, said enthusiastically buying into a second vote would also weaken the SNP’s hand “in resisting unionist calls for a second vote on a successful indyref”.
He added: “You can just imagine the Unionist chorus: ‘You were all for a second confirmatory vote on the EU but not one for independence.’”
The Perth and North Perthshire MP insisted “every apparatus of state would be deployed” to ensure Scotland was offered the worst deal possible after independence in a bid to rescue the Union.
He said he hoped Brexit would be reversed, but argued embracing a People’s Vote without any offer of a get-out if Scotland voted Remain again “is like throwing the dice on someone else’s roulette wheel”.
He continued: “Realistically, though, it is very unlikely to be realised. We will be out of the EU in less than six months and there is just not the political capacity to win a second vote.
“The few Tories likely to vote in favour will be swamped by the number of Labour MPs who believe that the ‘result must be respected’ even if the Labour front bench could be tempted to support it.
“We could be presenting all sorts of risks to a future independence referendum for nothing.”
Theresa May has rejected calls for a second Brexit vote, while Labour wants another General Election.
But Ms Sturgeon has said her MPs would “undoubtedly vote” for a referendum on the final deal if given the chance.
An SNP spokesman said: “We have made it clear that we would push strongly for any second EU referendum to have safeguards to ensure Scotland’s voice is protected in the event of Scotland voting remain again while the UK as a whole voted to leave.
“Scotland’s overwhelming vote to remain in 2016 – by far the most decisive vote of any of the UK nations – has been completely ignored, which underlines how Westminster completely fails to represent or protect Scotland’s vital national interests.”
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