Nicola Sturgeon has quietly dropped her previous commitment to hold another vote on Scottish independence by the spring of 2019, the SNP's manifesto for the 2017 general election has revealed.
"My priority in this election is to say to the people of Scotland, if you want Scotland's interests to be protected and our voice heard, then you've got to vote SNP to make sure that's the case".
Asked whether the decision to not display her image on the front page was due to her "divisive" reputation with voters, Ms Sturgeon joked, "the baby is cuter" (in reference to the child displayed on the cover).
It said that would offer the SNP a "triple lock", since the SNP had won the 2016 Holyrood election and a Scottish parliament vote in March backing Sturgeon's spring 2019 timetable.
"Any continued Tory attempts to block Scotland having a choice, when the time is right and the options are clear, would be democratically unsustainable".
In the Conservative package of election proposals, May reinforced her vision of Brexit, promising British voters she would deliver a clean break from the European Union and reiterating her warning that no deal is better than a bad one.
"Only the SNP can provide the strong opposition that Scotland needs to protect our schools, hospitals and vital public services from deeper Tory cuts and further damaging austerity", Sturgeon said in the central Scottish city of Perth on Tuesday.
In their manifesto, the Conservatives have already said that there will be not be another vote until the Brexit process has "played out" and there is "public consent for it".
Tucker: Why Did Comey Treat Trump & Clinton Differently?
On Thursday, Comey spoke candidly for nearly three hours, accusing President Trump and his administration of defamation and lies. In his testimony on Thursday, Comey had said he had been aware of Russian cyber intrusion in the USA from the summer of 2015.
Nicola Sturgeon clearly believed, along with many (although not this site) that the Brexit vote would trigger a surge of separatist sentiment and the imminent break-up of the UK.
She added: "The key point of principle for me is clarity at the end of a process to allow people to make a genuinely informed choice about the future of our country". "If that changes then of course we will have to change our timing in light of that".
The survey also shows support for Scottish independence stands at 45% among those certain to vote in a referendum.
"We have seen this before when they devolved employment support powers, they applied an 87% cut to that budget before they devolved the power and clearly it would be wrong if they did that to the winter fuel allowance".
But Scotland's First Minister and SNP leader said it was unlikely Jeremy Corbyn would be in the position to be Prime Minister, arguing the "reality" was that the Conservatives would secure a majority. "Nobody is fooled any more".
In terms of spending, the party plans to invest about £120bn in public services across the United Kingdom over the next five years.
Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, said: "The SNP must think we are stupid".
Comments