Nicola Sturgeon has told the Scottish National party’s annual conference that “we are the independence generation”, while reassuring those who will never be persuaded of the merits of leaving the UK that “whatever happens in future, Scotland belongs to you as much as it does to us”.
Addressing delegates in Aberdeen at the party’s first in-person conference since the pandemic, she promised Scotland “a steady and compassionate hand on the tiller” through the cost of living crisis.
With supreme court judges preparing to consider this week whether the Scottish government has the legal power to stage a referendum without Westminster consent, Sturgeon described independence as “essential” to escape Westminster mismanagement, build a new partnership of equals with the other UK countries and rejoin the EU.
Sturgeon’s blunt assertion that she “detests” the Tories, in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One on Sunday morning, attracted criticism from opponents and dominated Monday’s front pages, but she did not balk at describing Liz Truss’s tax-cutting package as “unconscionable”.
But after accusations that this “dangerous” language showed scant respect for Scots who disagreed with her politically, Sturgeon spoke directly beyond her activist base in the conference hall to those “watching at home [who] will never be persuaded to vote yes”.
She told them: “You oppose independence as strongly – and from as much principle – as we support it. I respect that … and please remember, whatever happens in future, Scotland belongs to you as much as it does to us.”
Noting that the last time the party gathered together in October 2019, the Tories had recently elected Boris Johnson as their new leader, she continued: “It took the Tories three years to realise Boris Johnson was a disaster. With Liz Truss, it took them just three weeks.”
Referring to the chaos unleashed by the UK government’s disastrous mini-budget in late September, Sturgeon said: “[Truss] caused mayhem in the markets with her decision to borrow billions of pounds to fund tax cuts for the richest. Borrowing to be repaid by eye-watering austerity cuts and a raid on the incomes of the poorest.”
She also reminded activists of Labour’s pro-union partnership with the Tories during the 2014 referendum campaign, dismissing the “same old Labour” as “willing to chuck Scotland under Boris Johnson’s Brexit bus to get the keys to Downing Street”.
Contrasting the UK government’s plans to “bundle [asylum seekers] on to planes like unwanted cargo”, Sturgeon emphasised Scotland’s international responsibility to stand with those in Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
Following speculation over the summer about how long she may remain in post after becoming Scotland’s longest-serving first minster, she reassured delegates to lengthy cheers and applause that she intended to remain as first minister “for quite some time yet”.
With the supreme court set to consider the Scottish government’s case over the coming two days, Sturgeon said: “If Westminster had any respect at all for Scottish democracy, this court hearing wouldn’t be necessary.”
If the court decides against the Scottish government, which the majority of constitutional experts believe it will, she will respect the decision and reflect with her party and the wider independence movement, she said.
“But fundamentally, it will leave us with a very simple choice. Put our case for independence to the people in an election … or give up on Scottish democracy.”
But she gave no further detail on how this “de facto referendum”, as she has previously described it, would be achieved in practice.
While the court case is continuing – the judgment is not expected until the end of the year – Sturgeon told her party their job was to focus not on the “how” of independence but the “why”, “not just talking to ourselves, but reaching out to others not yet persuaded”
Countering the narrative that independence would lead to further disruption at a time when voters were already struggling with vast global and economic uncertainty, she argued that the threat to public services such as the NHS, social security or broadcasting “comes not from an independent Scotland but from UK governments that are dismantling or undermining them”.
Independence would not mean “turning our back on the rest of the UK”, she said, but “is about recasting our relationship as one of equals”.
“Independence is actually the best way to protect the partnership on which the United Kingdom was founded,” she said, with “aggressive unionism” from the UK government currently undermining it.
Acknowledging that what gives many people pause over supporting independence is the economy, she confirmed that the Scottish government would publish its next position paper on independence, putting the economic case, next Monday.
This will set out how Scotland “can build a new, sustainable economy based on our massive renewable energy resources”, breaking with the “low productivity, high inequality Brexit-based UK economy”.
She revealed the paper would also propose to invest remaining oil revenues and use Scotland’s borrowing powers to set up an independence investment fund, that could deliver up to £20bn of investment in the first decade of independence.
More immediately, she also announced the Scottish government would double quarterly “bridging payments” made to the poorest families over the last year to £260 in time for Christmas.
