The SNP is “itching” to mimic the Leave campaign’s negative tactics in a re-run of the 2014 referendum, says Ruth Davidson.
The Scottish Conservative leader told a London audience that the case for the Union has to be “made afresh” as Nicola Sturgeon “cranks up the grievance machine” in the wake of Brexit.
Ms Davidson, a Remain campaigner who now backs triggering Article 50, warned that leaving the UK in response to the Brexit vote is akin to “stubbing your toe, to then amputate your foot”.
“The SNP is a formidable political operation which – I suspect – has learnt from the tactics of the Leave campaign last year and is itching to get its own campaign bus into gear as we speak,” she said in a speech at the London School of Economics.
“So my view is that the case for the Union must be made afresh, and we have to persuade people once again that our own Union of nations still works for us all.
“And there is something of a Brexit paradox here.
“Because while Brexit has provided the means for Nicola Sturgeon to crank up her independence campaign once more – it has also made that case weaker and more illogical than ever.”
The SNP still has no solution to which currency Scotland would use and how it would plug the £15bn deficit, Ms Davidson said.
She added that trade to the rest of UK is worth four times more to Scotland than with the rest of the EU.
An SNP spokesman said that Ms Davidson is “resorting to fantasy and delusion” as she denies the impact taking Scotland out of the world’s biggest single market, which has a population about eight times larger than the UK’s.
“Ruth Davidson, the Brexiteers’ apologist in chief, has shamelessly sold out on her commitment to keeping Scotland in the single market, and a hard Brexit threatens 80,000 Scottish jobs over the next decade,” the spokesman said.
“In those circumstances it is absolutely right that independence should be on the table as an option if it becomes clear it is the best or only way of protecting our vital national interests.”
Kezia Dugdale was also in the English capital on Monday night to deliver a speech to the University College London.
Calling for a “new Act of Union” that makes the UK more federal, the Scottish Labour leader said: “Our proposal seeks to build out from the benefits we already derive from being part of the UK, and it would bring power closer to people.”
