Alex Salmond has ridiculed Nicola Sturgeon’s attempts to win an independence referendum despite being up against “a bunch of complete muppets” at Westminster. The First Minister has insisted a breakaway poll will happen on October 19 next year, and her government is locked in a Supreme Court case over whether it has the power to hold one without the Prime Minister’s consent.
But in a scathing verdict on her tactics at the first day of the Alba party conference in Stirling yesterday, former SNP leader Salmond said: “There has been no real pressure to force the Tories to agree a referendum. In 2011 as first minister at the Scottish elections I won one single mandate for a referendum.
“The referendum duly followed in 2014. I faced down David Cameron as prime minister to respect Scotland’s rights. I didn’t agree with him but he was a political giant in comparison with Liz Truss. In contrast, Nicola Sturgeon has had four election mandates for IndyRef2.
“She now faces a bunch of complete muppets at Westminster who have U-turned on their disastrous economic policies in a matter of weeks. It is ridiculous to claim that through parliamentary and public pressure Liz Truss could not be forced to U-turn on Scotland just as she has backed down on everything else.
“Britain is bust and going down like the Titanic. This is the time for Scotland to launch the independence lifeboat.”
Salmond said he doubted whether the vote will happen on October 19. He said: “I am always suspicious of people who promise something with ‘no ifs, no buts’. It usually means that they are hiding some deeper uncertainty.
“However, when the SNP committed to a new independence referendum in 2023 in these terms of ‘no ifs, no buts’ I welcomed it – as did many thousands of others who had been patiently awaiting some action on indy since Scotland was hauled out of Europe against our will.
“But after watching the London Supreme Court proceedings on the ‘legality’ of a Scottish Referendum this week, I hae ma doots.
“The performance of the Lord Advocate representing the Scottish Government was lamentable, truly lamentable – not the lawyer’s fault since she had made it abundantly clear she had no confidence in the case in the first place.
“It was down to those who sent her to argue the wrong case in the wrong court.”
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