SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has placed a “triple lock” against Scottish independence – saying it must follow a change in public opinion, the election of a party proposing independence and another referendum.
But a further lock on another referendum appeared to slip in a short space of time after Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said she cannot envisage a scenario where Westminster would block it – just hours after UK Tory leader David Cameron said the issue “was settled”.
Ms Sturgeon also confirmed she would introduce full fiscal autonomy for Scotland within a year if given a chance, despite opposition warnings that it would leave an immediate £7.6 billion hole in Scotland’s economy.
Scotland’s political leaders went head-to-head once again this evening in a televised debate for BBC Scotland.
Ms Sturgeon said: “I do accept the result of the referendum. There is a triple lock on this. Before it is inserted in the manifesto, public opinion has to change, and then people have to vote for the manifesto if it is in it, then people have to vote for independence.
“Politicians don’t dictate this, the people are in charge. That’s the basis of democracy.”
In an interview with the UK Parliament’s The House magazine, Mr Cameron was pressed on whether he would feel bound to accept a referendum if Ms Sturgeon included a commitment to hold one in her Holyrood manifesto and the SNP won, and replied: “That issue is settled.”
But when pressed on whether the Tories would block another referendum, Ms Davidson said: “I do not see an area where if the circumstances arose again that we would.
“However, we would feel a betrayal very deeply when we were promised time after time by Nicola, by John Swinney, by all her MSPs, MPs, MEPs and councillors that this was ‘once in a generation’ and we were told by the end of the campaign it was ‘once in a lifetime’.”
Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said: “You don’t get a mandate from an opinion poll, you get a mandate from a manifesto and you have gone from being a proud co-leader of the big Yes campaign to being the head of the ‘maybes ayes, maybes naws’ campaign.
“I’m looking forward to seeing that badge.”
Ms Sturgeon said she would vote for full fiscal autonomy within a year, during the debate held at Aberdeen’s Elphinstone Hall.
“I don’t think it is any secret that I want Scotland to have as many powers over our own economy and our own fiscal levers as soon as possible,” she said.
“As Scotland’s voice in the House of Commons, if the SNP is there in numbers we will be arguing for as many powers to come to Scotland as quickly as possible.
“I would like it as quickly as the other parties agree to give it.”
Mr Murphy said: “Would your MPs vote for it next year?”
Ms Sturgeon replied: “I would vote for it, would you support it?”
Mr Murphy said: “Absolutely not, and let me tell you why.
“This is the idea that we cut ourselves off from sources of taxation across the UK.
“After the difficult time that Aberdeen and the north east of Scotland been through, the idea that we voluntarily give up the pooling and sharing of resources, the ability to transfer money across these islands – I don’t think it makes sense.”
He said Labour’s mansion tax would hit just 0.3% of Scots but it will benefit from “tens of millions of pounds of money coming from London and the South East”.
Ms Davidson said: “Full fiscal autonomy, right now if we vote for it next year, would mean that we had billions of pounds less in Scotland to spend on welfare.
“In fact, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said it would be £7.6 billion which is more than we spend on every single pensioner in this country.
“That’s the other half of the equation that you don’t want the people out there to know.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: “Just imagine if we had a different vote last September.
“I think there would be blind panic as a result of what has happened in the North Sea.
“To have our economy, not wholly, but largely dependent on the volatile resource of the North Sea I think would have caused absolute chaos to our public services, to our pensions, to our teachers, to our hospitals.
“Nicola Sturgeon has got a nerve to continue to argue for a policy that was soundly trounced in the referendum.”
Scottish Ukip MEP David Coburn said: “If we had listened to Ms Sturgeon and her crew, quite frankly, we would be bankrupt, we would have nothing, the country would be finished.”
Ms Sturgeon also confirmed that the SNP would vote against the renewal of Trident nuclear weapons, amid Tory suggestions that they may simply abstain to appease Labour in any future deal.
The SNP leader said: “It is often asked of me: is Trident a red line? Well here’s my answer, you better believe that Trident is a red line.
“We will vote against any vote in the House of Commons against the renewal of Trident.
“There is no circumstances under which SNP MPs will vote for the renewal of Trident.”
But she confirmed that the SNP would still support Scotland’s membership of nuclear-armed military alliance Nato.
Scottish Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: “I could never support a government that supported the idea of replacing our weapons of mass destruction.
“And I would never support a government that was willing to repeat the disastrous neo-liberal economic model that has allowed wealth to be hoarded by those that need it the least while those in the greatest need are left stranded.”
When pressed if he was against capitalism, he said: “I think there genuinely needs to be a re-evaluation of the nature of our economics.
“There is a fundamental problem with the nature of modern capitalism as it stands at the moment, finance capitalism where so much of our economy is owned by the finance industry.”
He added: “The phrase a moment ago was ‘control over our own economy’, but let’s remember that so much control over our real economy – infrastructure, oil, energy – has been handed over to a tiny number of vast multinationals.
“That’s the kind of control that we need to get back so that our economy itself is democratically accountable.”