Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said that if there is a “determined will” to support another vote, the British government will not stand in the way of a second Scottish independence referendum as tensions continue between London and Edinburgh over the future of trade unions. Is.
in the interview Sunday’s postGove said that although this is not the right time to raise the issue of independence, he believes that in “appropriate circumstances”, the Westminster government will not prevent the Scottish public from commenting on the matter.
“There is a theory that the Scottish people can raise the issue again under appropriate circumstances,” he told the newspaper. “I don’t think it’s right, and the public doesn’t think it’s right to raise the issue right now. If there’s a clear desire to support a referendum, there will be a referendum.”
Gove’s remarks come at a time when the Scottish government has increased political pressure on independence.
During the local elections in May, the prime minister, Nicola Sturgeon, won for the fourth time in a row: the election manifesto promised to hold a second referendum by the end of 2023.
The next month, the gov responsible for strengthening Coalition 313 in the UK, To say He believes it is unlikely the British government will approve a referendum before the 2024 elections.
“I think it’s stupid to talk about a referendum now, we are recovering from Covid,” he said at the time. “In my opinion, when people expect us to work together to address these challenges, it is foolish on the good side and stupid on the bad to try to shift the dialogue toward constitutional divide.”
These comments attracted a strong rebuttal from Sturgeon, who described it as “ridicule, arrogant condescending“He also believes that the position of the British government will only increase support for independence.
There were already 2 million people in 2014– 55.3% voted yes Keep the UK part and 44.7% of the Scottish public voted for independence.
Sturgeon and his colleagues believe that support for a second referendum is growing, and the vote is now “It’s a matter of time, otherwise“.
a survey sunday time PanelBase found in June that, apart from “I don’t know”, 48% are in favor of independence. But it is four percentage points lower than the elections held in early April.
In response to Gove’s latest comments, MP Ian Blackford, Westminster leader of the Scottish National Party, expressed skepticism and warned that the Scottish public cannot rely on the Conservative Party to protect Scotland and see the country as ‘a more conservative’. Facing penance. .
Blackford said: “The main point that Michael Gove missed is that when the Scottish people elected a majority of independent supporters to the Scottish Parliament more than two months ago, they expressed their strong desire to hold a referendum Was.” .
Although the Scottish National Party had one fewer seats than the majority in the May elections, the Independence Party controlled 72 of the 129 seats in the Edinburgh Parliament.
Blackford said: “If Boris Johnson continues to ignore the Scottish people’s mandate to hold a referendum, he will continue to tell the Scottish people that his views are not important. It will only spur support for freedom”.