The SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon: I don’t want independence via Brexit

Nicola Sturgeon does not want to achieve independence from the UK leaving the European Union, the SNP leader has said.

The SNP leader’s comments were made in an interview for an STV documentary on the forthcoming referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.

Sturgeon said: “It’s no secret that I want Scotland to be independent but I don’t really, if I had the choice over it, want that to come about because the UK takes a step that I think will be deeply damaging which is to leave to leave the European Union.”

The First Minister was being questioned on the political consequences of Brexit for Scotland.

The party’s 2016 Holyrood manifesto stated that the Scottish Parliament “should have the right to hold another referendum” if there is “a significant and material change…such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against our will”.

A second referendum could also be triggered, according to the document, if “there is clear and sustained evidence” that a majority of Scots now support independence.

Last week in a televised debate on the referendum, former SNP leader Alex Salmond said Brexit would lead to “another referendum” within the two year period” of the UK negotiating its withdrawal.

The former First Minister also predicated the pro-independence campaign would be successful in a post-Brexit referendum.

The documentary, Everything You Wanted to Know About the EU (But Were Too Afraid to Ask, also tackled questions such as how the EU was created and how its organisations work.

Former Chancellor, Lord Darling, and former Scottish secretary Lord Forsyth were interviewed together.

Darling is campaigning for a Remain vote in next month’s referendum while Lord Forsyth supports the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.

In an echo from the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, Lord Darling warned that a Leave vote was “a leap into the dark” and “an uncertain future”.

Nicola Sturgeon announced at the SNP’s pre-election conference that the party would launch an ” initiative to build support for independence” in the summer.

soucre stvnews