Boris Johnson has dismissed out of hand Nicola Sturgeon’s appeal to agree to another Scottish independence referendum “in the spirit of co-operation”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman rejected the core message in the First Minister’s address to the SNP conference even before she had finished speaking.
At a briefing for journalists in Downing Street, the PM’s spokesman said the focus of all governments should be on covid recovery and repeated the mantra that “now is simply not the time” to consider a second referendum.
It comes as Nicola Sturgeon insisted Scotland's membership of the Union was "voluntary" and the UK Government had no right to block an IndyRef2.
The spokesman said: “We’ve said this many times before, Ministers and officials across the UK Government departments are focusing on tackling COVID 19 pandemic and supporting the economic recovery.”
“Scottish people have been clear they want to see the UK Government and devolved governments working together to defeat pandemic, that’s our priority.”
“Last week we announced further investment in health and social care across the UK, including £1.1 billion to Scotland by 2025, and we’ll continue to work closely with our Scottish counterparts.”
“As I said, we are very much focused with them on recovering from this pandemic.”
Addressing delegates at the SNP's virtual party conference, Sturgeon said: "Judged by any standard of democracy, our victory in May represents an unarguable mandate to implement the manifesto we put before the country.
"And that is what we intend to do. It is called democracy.
"During the election we said that tackling the pandemic would come first – and it will.
"We said we would pursue the most ambitious programme for government ever put before the people of Scotland – we are doing exactly that."
The First Minister added: "So it is in that spirit of co-operation that I hope the Scottish and UK governments can reach agreement - as we did in 2014 - to allow the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland to be heard and respected.
'But, this much is clear. Democracy must - and will - prevail. The United Kingdom is after all a voluntary union of nations.
'Until recently no-one seriously challenged the right of the people in Scotland to choose whether or not they wished to become independent.
"Frankly it is not up to a Westminster government which has just six MPs in Scotland to decide our future without the consent of the people who live here."
Downing Street also refused to back accept the idea of a referendum “in principle” as other Tory cabinet Ministers have.
Both Michael Gove, the cabinet Minister handling Union affairs, and Scottish Secretary Alister Jack have said that a vote could be held if support for staging a referendum was consistently running at 60 per cent.
But the Prime Minister’ spokesman did not back the change in tone from other ministers
The official said: “We’ve never set a position on that. We haven’t said any sort of target. Our view, as set out ,is that now is simply not the time to be dealing with this.”
He added: “The public are looking to governments and leaders across the UK to focus on dealing with this ongoing pandemic and recovering the economy."
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiYGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5cmVjb3JkLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvcG9saXRpY3Mvbmljb2xhLXN0dXJnZW9uLXNjb3R0aXNoLWluZGVwZW5kZW5jZS1ib3Jpcy0yNDk3MjE0NNIBZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5cmVjb3JkLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvcG9saXRpY3Mvbmljb2xhLXN0dXJnZW9uLXNjb3R0aXNoLWluZGVwZW5kZW5jZS1ib3Jpcy0yNDk3MjE0NC5hbXA?oc=5
2021-09-13 11:44:44Z
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