Sturgeon refuses to answer ‘political questions’ in Covid briefing

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Nicola Sturgeon was asked by The Scottish Sun’s political reporter Dan Vevers whether she thought it was appropriate of her and the SNP to push for an independence referendum later this year. The reporter questioned if such a move was right considering the country would start its road to recovery after the pandemic. The First Minister quickly took charge and dismissed the question before she moved swiftly on. 

Mr Vevers asked Ms Sturgeon: “First Minister, your party’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, is reported as saying today an independence referendum could still be held late this year. 

“Now, even if the immediate health risk from Covid has subsided, is it in your view that it would be appropriate to focus on a referendum?

“Given that we will still be emerging and recovering from the pandemic, may still be unable to do things like travel abroad and may still be required to (social distance) and (wear) face coverings and all the rest of it?”

A viably frustrated Ms Sturgeon quickly delivered a put-down of the question.

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She said: “I’m not getting into political questions right now, this is a Covid briefing I’m going to stick to that today. 

“My focus is on Covid and doing what is right around Covid for as long as it takes and that’s,  what I’m here to talk about today.”

Earlier in the presser, the First Minister was also asked about football and whether fans would be able to attend Scotland’s Euros matches. 

She was unable to provide a straight answer on if they could visit stadiums.

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Ian Blackford told PA that he wanted to see an independence referendum happen as “quickly” as possible. 

He added: “But of course we’ve got to get the election out the way, we need to make sure that the SNP are elected back into government again, that we reinforce that mandate for a referendum.

“There’s a Bill that will be published over the coming weeks and that can be enacted once we’re on the other side of the election.

“Of course what I would say is that the first priority of the Government is dealing with the Covid crisis, it’s about keeping people safe, it’s about the acceleration that we’ve seen with the vaccine programme, it’s about taking off the measures of lockdown as and when we can.

“But we do that based on data, we do that based on evidence, we do that based on keeping people safe.

“When we’ve got to that position of safety, that would be the right time to have the referendum.”

Nicola Sturgeon revealed that she would push for an advisory referendum on independence without the approval of Westminster if the SNP won the Scottish Parliamentary election. 

According to the Scotland Act 1998, the nation is not allowed to make decisions on the unity of the UK. 

It can, however, request an Article 30 from Westminster which suspends part of the act, which was used for the last Scottish independence referendum.  

Scotland’s Parliamentary election will be held on May 6. 

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