Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston has described Nicola Sturgeon’s continued prioritising of another independence referendum as “bewildering”.
The Scottish Conservative MSP was speaking after last weekend’s SNP conference was dominated by arguments over the costs of setting up an independent Scottish currency and a new central bank to replace the Bank of England. Despite the emergence of the new Omicron variant of Coronavirus, as well as existing pressures faced by Scotland’s health services which remain unresolved, Nicola Sturgeon claimed she would be pushing ahead with plans for another divisive and unnecessary referendum on independence.
Recent polling has shown support for independence stagnating, with more Scots wanting the country to remain part of the United Kingdom and independence well down the list of priorities most want addressed.
Jamie Halcro Johnston said “Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP need to get their priorities right. It is utterly bewildering that, while everyone else in Scotland is pre-occupied with more urgent issues like delivering the roll-out of the vaccine booster programme or dealing with the aftermath of Storm Arwen, the SNP continue to obsess about a new independence referendum the majority of Scots don’t want and even those who do don’t see as a priority."
“When will Nicola Sturgeon stop playing to increasingly fragmented nationalist galleries and recognise that, out here in the real world, the last thing we need are more irrelevant constitutional distractions?"
“The First Minister should be concentrating on addressing the serious pressures our NHS and health staff are under, better supporting Scotland’s businesses which are still feeling the effects of the pandemic, and making sure that Scotland is better able to cope with extreme weather events like Storm Arwen.”
