Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed that the SNP’s ‘little local difficulties’ is a clear reason not to hold a fresh independence poll in Scotland.
The leader of the Commons claimed it would be “reckless” to hold another vote as the UK seeks to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic too.
Speaking in the Commons, SNP MP Angus MacNeil asked: “If the Scottish people or indeed the Welsh people, given the polling in Wales this morning, were to vote for independence at the ballot box, would he respect that choice of the Scottish and indeed the Welsh people?”
Rees-Mogg, in his reply, said: “There was a referendum, he may have forgotten, in 2014 in Scotland which settled the issue.
“It seems to me it would be reckless in the midst of sorting out a pandemic, getting the economy back on its feet and some little local difficulties going on with the leadership of the Scottish National Party to be proposing a referendum at this point.”
On Wednesday, Nicola Sturgeon gave evidence to a Holyrood committee into the government’s unlawful investigation of her predecessor Alex Salmond.
Former SNP MP Salmond alleges there was a “malicious and concerted” plot against him, although Sturgeon argued there was “not a shred of evidence” to support those claims.
Elections to the Scottish Parliament are scheduled for May 6.
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