MICHAEL Gove has categorically ruled out a second Scottish independence referendum as Nicola Sturgeon accused the Tories of “raging against reality”.
Mr Gove said today there would absolutely not be another indyref regardless of how Scotland votes in the 2021 Holyrood election.
‘ABSOLUTELY NOT’
It comes after SNP boss Ms Sturgeon insisted the PM’s refusal to grant another referendum “will not be the end of the end of the matter and said that the Tories were raging against reality.
Her Westminster leader Ian Blackford declared Thursday’s election was the “end of the union”.
He said: “Scotland will be leaving and we’ll be joining the EU.
The only question is the timing and the mechanism for that.”
But while relations with the government north of the border plunge to a new low, Mr Gove told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “We were told in 2014 that would be a choice for a generation, we are not going to have an independence referendum on Scotland.”
On Thursday the SNP increased its share of the vote and increased its number of MPs to 47, while the Tories now only have six Scottish MPs – down from 13.
‘RAGING AGAINST REALITY’
Ms Sturgeon confirmed she will “set out this week the detailed, democratic, case for the transfer of power” to Holyrood to allow for a legal referendum to take place.
And she insisted the Tories would not be able to sustain their opposition to such a ballot.
Speaking about Boris Johnson, she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “If he thinks – and I said this to him on Friday night on the telephone – that saying no is the end of the matter, he is going to find himself completely and utterly wrong.
“It’s a fundamental point of democracy, you cannot hold Scotland in the Union against its will.
“You cannot just lock us in a cupboard and turn the key and hope that everything goes away.
“If the United Kingdom is to continue, it can only be by consent and if Boris Johnson is confident in the case for the Union he should be confident enough to make that case and allow people to decide.”
Ms Sturgeon added: “Scotland cannot be imprisoned in the United Kingdom against its will.”
