NICOLA Sturgeon has said she doesn't believe there was anything else she could have done to secure a second referendum on independence.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Institute for Government (IfG) think tank, the former first minister was asked about her Supreme Court independence bid from 2022.
The plan saw Sturgeon ask the Lord Advocate to refer the case of whether the Scottish Parliament has to relevant powers to hold a referendum on independence to the court, in an attempt to break the constitutional deadlock over whether or not Holyrood can pass a bill to hold a referendum vote without Westminster consent.
Should the court have ruled in the Scottish Government's favour, a referendum was scheduled to be held on October 19, 2023. However, judges found that Holyrood required Westminster's permission, something which successive UK Governments have not wished to provide, and the prospect of another referendum being held in the immediate future faded.
Sturgeon resigned as first minister a few months later.
In the new IfG interview, the former SNP chief was asked if she could have done anything else to get a vote on Scotland's future.
"Looking back, do you think there was anything different you could have done to secure a different outcome?" the interviewer asked.
"In a process sense, maybe there was and somebody much cleverer than me has to come up with it," the MSP told the organisation. "But I don't think so. When you're basically banging your head against a firmly shut and locked door, other than trying to kick it down – at times it felt as if I was trying to do that – I’m not sure."
Instead, Sturgeon argued that the pressure required for indyref2 lies with the people of Scotland.
"What would have made the difference, and what I think will ultimately make the difference – whether it’s through the Section 30 route as is or some different process of agreeing the terms of when a referendum should happen – is popular demand.
"I think what would have made the difference would have been getting levels of support for independence, not just higher in absolute terms but with more of a sense of kind of urgency behind it.
"Not just people saying we support independence, but we support it as a priority and we want to decide it now. I think the highest level of support for independence during my time as first minister was, ironically, during the pandemic. I was consumed with the pandemic at the time. I think to try to galvanise that would have been wrong but also very difficult."
The interview has been released as part of the IFG's "Ministers Reflect" series, which sees a number of high-profile UK politicians discuss their time in office.
As well as Sturgeon, the think tank has sat down with former Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford, former rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing and former Green minister Lorna Slater, among others.
Elsewhere in her Q&A, Sturgeon discussed her biggest mistakes in office, and said Humza Yousaf's decision to end the Bute House Agreement with the Greens was "catastrophic".
