Nicola Sturgeon loudly mocked as she claims 'only independence can SAVE Scotland'
THE SCOTTISH Parliament erupted in laughter when Nicola Sturgeon claimed a second referendum on Scotland's independence would be the only guarantee Brexit would not damage her country, during First Minister's Questions.
FMQs in UPROAR as Sturgeon calls for independence
The Scottish First Minister claimed she would support a Brexit People's Vote in the event Theresa May called for one but argued a second referendum on EU membership would not guarantee "salvation" for Scotland.
Urged to back the second EU referendum campaign by Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie, Ms Sturgeon claimed the so-called People's Vote will not guarantee Brexit will not be imposed on Remain-backing Scotland.
She said: “We don’t stand in the way of a People’s Vote if there’s a People’s Vote I’d be perfectly happy with that.
“But it doesn’t guarantee salvation for Scotland and we saw in 2016.
“So when Willie Rennie is right about one thing: it is really serious.
“The Tories are leading Scotland to disaster and the last few days we’ve had warnings of recession, medicine shortages, pressure on food supply.
“We’ve seen the cancellation of a clinical trial at the Golden Jubilee Hospital.
“But that for me makes this point clearer than ever.
“Scotland needs the option of independence because only independence guarantees that these things can’t be imposed on us against our will.”
If there’s a People’s Vote I’d be perfectly happy with that
Last month, the Scottish First Minister received the stark warning from cross-party Unionist campaign group Scottish Business UK, on the fourth anniversary of the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, which resulted in the country not winning independence from the rest of the UK.
The campaign group warned the SNP leader that damaging Scotland’s trade with the rest of the UK would be far greater than the potential losses that the UK could face as a result of exiting the European Union (EU) in March next year.
Scottish Business UK said employers would struggle under the pressure of added uncertainty as tensions grow over the fate of the UK post-Brexit in a new report published on Tuesday.
The report, titled Win-Win: the business case for Scotland’s place in the UK, said Scotland’s independence would be more disastrous than a doomsday Brexit scenario as the country would lose additional government spending per head under the Barnett Formula.
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The report also highlighted figures that showed trade between Scotland and other parts of the UK was three times more valuable as Scotland’s trade with the EU.
Scottish Business UK founder Robert Kilgour said: "Scottish businesses and the economy has gone through an extended period of uncertainty and that is de-stabilising our opportunity to grow and crucially to secure inward investment.
“The negative impact of the continuing uncertainty is a message I hear regularly from investors who turn to other countries or regions in England, to give their investments a more stable base from which to grow.”
The campaign group’s chief executive, former MEP Struan Stevenson, backed up the independent report and called for the government to “abandon” the pursuit of another referendum.