THE Scottish Tories will today urge SNP ministers to drop “reckless and damaging” plans for a second independence referendum amidst the pandemic.

The party will use an opposition debate to force a vote at Holyrood as it condemns the Scottish Government for dwelling on the constitution instead of working on the disease and economic recovery.

The Tories said SNP ministers should put their efforts into the vaccine roll-out in particular.

The Scottish Government has been allocated 984,000 doses from the UK Government, but as of Tuesday morning only 437,900 first inoculations had been administered. 

Although largely stored by distributor Movianto in England, the Scottish Government’s own rollout plan describes these stocks as being available for “next day delivery” to Scotland.

Today's vote follows SNP President and Constitution Secretary Mike Russell publishing an 11-point roadmap to Indyref2 at the weekend.

It said a draft referendum Bill would be published before May’s election, and that, if another pro-independence majority was elected, Holyrood would hold a legal referendum after the pandemic.

If Mr Johnson refused to grant Holyrood referendum powers, the parliament would legislate for Indyref2 regardless and dare him to challenge the law at the UK Supreme Court.  

The Tory motion, in the name of health spokesperson Donald Cameron, says "planning an independence referendum in 2021, during an ongoing global pandemic, would be reckless and damaging".

It also "notes the Scottish National Party's plans to establish an independence taskforce and believes that this will divide Scotland when people should be united in tackling Covid-19 and supporting the economic recovery, and calls on the Scottish Government to instead establish a taskforce to speed up the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccination programme across Scotland."

The vote on the motion, which is not binding, is expected to be defeated by the combined numbers of the SNP and Scottish Greens.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: “The SNP’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout has slowed just as their push for indyref2 has ramped up considerably.

 “They are distracted from the huge challenge facing us by their obsession with holding another divisive referendum at the earliest opportunity.

“Nothing could be more reckless and damaging than seeking to split up the country just as both governments are working together to boost the vaccine rollout and maintain ambulance services in Scotland.

“The SNP are risking Scotland’s recovery to pursue their own selfish goal of separation.

“They need to get a grip on the vaccine rollout before they fall even further behind their targets. Our focus must be fully on delivering the vaccine so the whole country can move forward from this crisis.”

After being challenged about having half a million unused doses of vaccine on Tuesday, deputy First Minister John Swinney told MSPs: “There are not 500,000 doses of the vaccine in our hands in Scotland, able to be used at this present moment.

“There are more vaccines being allocated to Scotland than are in our hands and they will be drawn down as soon as the distributors are able to verify those supplies and distribute them on to us in Scotland and that’s the orderly path that we are taking.”

A spokeswoman for the First Minister said: “The Scottish Government is absolutely focused on tackling the pandemic, which remains everyone’s top priority.

“We paused work on independence last year at the start of the Covid crisis, unlike the Tories who disgracefully ploughed ahead with Brexit in the middle of the pandemic.

“But the question is who the people of Scotland want to be in charge of rebuilding our country and economy - a Scottish Government or a Westminster one led by the likes of Boris Johnson? We are determined to give the people of Scotland that choice.”