‘Scottish freedom vote depends on support’

EDINBURGH: The UK government could approve a second Scottish independence referendum if support for staging one stays above 60% for a sustained period, Alister Jack, the Scotland secretary, has said.

Jack said consistent support for a fresh vote would confirm to the government that one was justified, as he signalled a further softening of the Conservatives’ previously rigid rejection of Scottish National party demands for a second referendum.

“If you consistently saw 60% of the population wanting a referendum – not wanting independence but wanting a referendum – and that was sustained over a reasonably long period, then I would acknowledge that there was a desire for a referendum,” he told Politico.

Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Green party co-leader, who is expected to become a Scottish government minister next week if a new cooperation deal with the SNP is supported on Saturday by his party’s membership, said he welcomed the acknowledgment by the Tories that a referendum was a legitimate aspiration. He said Holyrood already had a mandate to stage a new vote, after pro-independence parties won a majority in May’s election, and that opinion poll thresholds were therefore irrelevant.

“We have a very clearly pro-independence parliament and I would like to see that parliament debate a bill to set that referendum, and I would like to see the UK government respect that decision,” he said.