Ruth Davidson attacks Sturgeon for 'using Brexit to get second referendum'
RUTH DAVIDSON laid into Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP saying they are using Brexit in a desperate attempt to get a second independence referendum and blackmail Westminster.
Davidson: SNP using Brexit to promote independence
Theresa May has faced increasing pressure from Ms Sturgeon after she repeated her threat of a second Scottish independence referendum if there is a hard Brexit as the UK prepares to pull away from the European Union.
The First Minister also floated the idea that if Scotland was offered a 'soft' Brexit she would temporarily halt her demands for a follow-up independence vote to the 2014 referendum.
However, her comments have outraged Ms Davidson, the leader of the Conservatives in Scotland, who has argued that the SNP leader is simply using Brexit as a political bargaining chip.
They’re using Brexit to desperately try and whip up support for independence
She told BBC 5 Live's Pienaar's Politics: “The really clear case that we have seen this week with the SNP with Nicola Sturgeon saying on Friday, she was going to take her referendum off the table.
“And sending out her praetorian guard today with Alex Salmond today saying ‘actually everybody get your flags out of the attic in the Scottish sun’.
“‘We’re heading back into battle’.”
Ms Davidson fumed over the threats made by Ms Sturgeon about exiting the UK and destroying the Union.
Sturgeon's plans could DELAY Brexit says top lawyer
The First Minister has said Scotland's voice needs to be respected after 62 per cent of the country voted to Remain in the EU referendum.
However, Ms Davidson argued the SNP and its leader have only one aim, which is to have another referendum on independence.
She said: “They’re exactly where they were before. They’re using Brexit as they have done for six months to desperately try and whip up support for independence that hasn’t happened.
“The only thing they are looking to do, is not for the need of the Scottish people it’s looking to the polls.”
Speaking on Sunday to Andrew Marr, Ms Sturgeon said she was prepared to call a fresh vote if the terms of Brexit were not right.
She said "they will be making a big mistake if they think that I'm in any way bluffing" because leaving the European Union created a "fundamental question" for Scotland.
"If we're going to be ignored, if our voice has been completely cast aside, our interests cast aside, then that can happen on anything," she said.
"And we have to ask ourselves in Scotland are we happy to have the direction of our country, the kind of country we want to be determined by a right-wing Conservative government perhaps for the next 20 years, or do we want to take control of our own future. And that's the case that in those circumstances I think it would be right for Scotland to have the opportunity to decide."
Asked if she was looking at a referendum "much quicker" than in five or 10 years' time if there was a hard Brexit she said: "I would think, yes. But let me not get away from this point, I'm putting to Theresa May a compromise solution."