A second EU referendum could be “irresistible” with the UK on course to crash out of the bloc, Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday.
In a shift towards supporting what is being dubbed Euroref2, the SNP leader said the arguments for a vote on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations are getting stronger.
With Ms Sturgeon keeping the door open to another independence vote before 2021, that raises the prospect of having two more referendums in Scotland within four years.
Opening up to another EU vote, coupled with the plan to immediately rejoin the EU should Scots go for independence, also puts her on a collision course with the estimated 400,000 Yes voters who backed Leave.
Meanwhile, the First Minister has unveiled a Scottish Government plan to spend £840m a year by 2021 to cover its policy doubling of free childcare hours, up from £420m.
“I do think those who are calling, not for a second referendum on the principle of EU membership, but a referendum on the final outcome, that case perhaps will get stronger and become more and more difficult to resist,” the FM told Good Morning Scotland.
In a later interview she said she is “not there right now” in supporting a vote on the final outcome.
But she added: “If we end up in a position where the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal at all, the consequences of that are so dire that I think the argument at that stage may be irresistible that people should have the right to look at the outcome.”
Ms Sturgeon planned to run an independence vote between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, but that was dropped after the SNP lost 21 seats in the general election.
She now says she will hold back from making a decision on the timing of Indyref2 until it is clearer what leaving the EU entails.
That clarity, she has said, is likely to come “towards the end of next year”.
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said Ms Sturgeon is “wants Brexit to be a disaster because she thinks it’ll bring independence a step closer”.
“And with her penchant for re-running democratic referendums, it’s no surprise to hear her hint at another vote,” he said.
“But the people of Scotland are sick of these games, and want a government who will get on and make a success of Brexit, not use it to stoke grievance.”
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, took a swipe at Ruth Davidson’s claim that her 13 MPs, who helped keep the Tories in power, were extracting the best deal for Scotland from the Chancellor ahead of next month’s Budget.
It is hoped that cash for the Tay Cities Deal and oil decommissioning, which could deliver thousands of jobs in Dundee, will be promised by Philip Hammond on November 22.
Mr Blackford said the group of Scottish Tory MPs are “not so much Ruth’s rebels, as Theresa’s lobby fodder”.
“Rather than doing the day job, standing up for the interests of their constituents, they have been acting like sheep at their Westminster leader’s beck and call – and being a crofter, I speak with some authority,” he said.
“Either unwilling, or unable, to stand up for Scotland – the Scottish Tories have been blindly rubber-stamping whatever damaging policies they are told to.”
In a fringe event last night, Pete Wishart, the SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire, said Scots will soon be demanding the SNP pulls the trigger on Indyref2.
“We will be having another independence referendum, not because we want it, but because the Scottish nation will be crying out for it as they start to experience the horrors of Brexit,” he said.
“They will be coming to the SNP saying ‘for gooddness sake get us out of this mess’.”
The childcare spending announcement comes after claims ministers would struggle to fund it. Ms Sturgeon is to tell delegates they have “put our money where our mouth is”.