Planning for another Scottish independence vote can move forward due to the “improved situation” in the coronavirus pandemic, John Swinney has said.
But opposition parties have condemned the government for resuming work on a second referendum with Covid-19 still surging and despite the “collective trauma” the country has experienced.
Business and hospitality groups also warned that “people just need to draw breath” after years of political turmoil and some restrictions still in place.
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister told BBC Good Morning Scotland: “What we’ve said all along is that when we get out of the intensity of Covid we will start the preparations for the independence referendum and that’s exactly what the government has done.
“We took the sensible decision back in March 2020 to pause all preparations for an independence referendum despite having a mandate to do so and we’ve watched carefully the passage of the virus and we now find ourselves in a position that we are in a much, much improved situation.”
Mr Swinney said he would not share details of the timetable for preparations for a referendum, which is being worked on within government at the moment, but that it would be shared as soon as the detail is ready.
It follows comments from Nicola Sturgeon on Sunday to announcing a legislative timetable for an IndyRef2 bill would be confirmed in “the coming weeks”.
Responding to the remarks, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: “We as a country have gone through almost two years of collective trauma trying to get through this pandemic, being separated from our loved ones, not being able to share grief with our loved ones or being able to share joy with our loved ones.
“We’ve got a massive, massive job of what to do to rebuild our economy to inspire confidence in the economic outlook.
“The fact that 650,000 of our fellow Scots are on NHS waiting lists and some are waiting months if not years to get the most simple of treatments in the best case scenario and people not getting access to proper cancer treatment in the worst case scenarios.
“The fact that an entire generation of young people have missed out on quality education that will have held them back, the educational attainment gap that’s left, the psychological mental health impact that’s left on young people, not to mention all the huge challenges we face as a wider country such as challenging the climate emergency and getting ourselves back on our feet.
“And what does the Scottish Government want to do? They want to say to people: ‘You pulled your community together, you came through this together and fought together but now that we’re coming through it and now we’re finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, let’s go back to arguing with each other again, let’s go back to dividing our control over again’.
“I think that perfectly demonstrates the blind spot of Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney and the SNP – pull the country together for a pandemic but pull the country apart coming through a pandemic.”
Scottish Conservative MSP Donald Cameron added: “The Scottish people will be appalled at John Swinney’s indefensible admission that the SNP Government have already begun planning for another divisive independence referendum.
“It beggars belief that the SNP consider this appropriate when the country is still subject to their Covid restrictions and all the focus should be on rebuilding our public services and economy in the wake of the pandemic.
“Scotland’s NHS is on its knees amid a staffing crisis and the worst A&E waiting times ever recorded, while the Education Secretary refuses to guarantee that exams will even go ahead this spring.
“Yet against this backdrop, the SNP think it’s time to obsess over the constitution. That shows how warped and self-serving their priorities are.”
Stability. That's what we need. We've gone through referendums, Brexit, pandemics, we just need to draw breath now.
On the day pubs and restaurants no longer have to follow social distancing measures and nightclubs can finally reopen, Stephen Montgomery from the Scottish Hospitality Group (SHG) said: “Hearing John Swinney’s comments as I was driving, I nearly ended up on the central reservation.
“I think Mr Swinney just needs to take a walk down Glasgow high street on a Friday night at six or seven o’clock, with shops that are still open but with no-one in them, and come into restaurants that would normally be busy that are dead.
“If he’s going to make a statement that the economy or many sectors are back to normal he’s got to tell us what ones, because I certainly don’t know what they are. It’s certainly not hospitality and certainly not retail.
“I think words chosen wisely are often the best words.”
Mario Gizzi, owner of the DiMaggio’s restaurant group and an SHG member, added: “Stability. That’s what we need. We’ve gone through referendums, Brexit, pandemics – we just need to draw breath now.
“People and businesses just need to get back to normal.”
