SCOTTISH Labour leader Richard Leonard accused First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of “trying to rig the process” of a second independence referendum during a heated exchange at Holyrood today.
Addressing the First Minister, Mr Leonard asked: “Who is more expert on setting a clear, transparent and neutral referendum question: the Electoral Commission or [Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations] Mike Russell?”
Mr Leonard went on to cite Scotland's Electoral Commissioner Dame Sue Bruce, who said before a parliamentary committee that any future referendum question needed to be tested by the Electoral Commission to ensure “integrity of the process.”
But Ms Sturgeon hit back during the exchange at First Minister’s Questions (FMQs), arguing that the question had already been tested by the Electoral Commission and in the 2014 independence referendum itself.
She said: “I don’t know anybody across Scotland – with the exception of the politicians who seem to be running scared at the verdict of the Scottish people when that question is asked again – who thinks that that question is anything other than clear and understandable.
“But I’m going to take today’s question from Richard Leonard as progress, because in asking me about the question for an independence referendum, he now appears to be accepting that a referendum is inevitable.”
Responding to the First Minister, Mr Leonard said that “the people of Scotland chose their future five years ago” and told Ms Sturgeon that the issue concerned not just the integrity of a referendum but that of the entire Scottish government, asking: “What have you got to hide?”
Elsewhere at FMQs, Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw highlighted his party’s plans to ensure that those serving life sentences should never be granted freedom while Green MSP Alison Johnstone attacked the SNP government over its failure to meet targets and asked for reassurance that those in the recently passed Climate Change Bill would be achieved.
“We cannot back a lack of ambition,” said Ms Johnstone.
The First Minister also reiterated a call for MSPs to back the full devolution of welfare powers to Holyrood when asked by SNP MSP Alasdair Allan about the impact of Tory welfare cuts in Scotland.
