Asked whether Nicola Sturgeon would be taken to court if a second referendum on Scottish independence was held, Michael Gove said: “A majority of people who voted in the constituencies voted for parties that were opposed to a referendum”.
He added that Ms Sturgeon “didn’t secure a majority as Alex Salmond did in 2011. That is a significant difference”.
The Cabinet Office minister told BBC’s Andrew Marr: “Alex Salmond, when he requested a referendum, every party in the Scottish Parliament agreed that it was appropriate to have a referendum given that he had secured a majority. It is not the case now – as we see – that the people of Scotland are agitating for a referendum.”
However, there is an increased pro-independence majority in Holyrood following Saturday’s results. This is because the pro-independence Scottish Greens secured eight seats and the SNP secured 64. Since the magic majority number in Holyrood is 65 seats, this means that the Scottish Parliament technically does have the largest pro-independence majority since devolution started – 72 seats out of the 129 available.
Alex Salmond might have secured an outright 69-seat SNP majority in the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary elections, but the Greens only secured two, which means the pro-independence majority then was 71 rather than yesterday’s 72.
However, the Conservatives can argue, as Mr Gove has done this morning, that because Ms Sturgeon did not secure an outright majority herself – she was one seat shy of one – and because most people voted for Unionist parties on their constituency vote, that the mandate is not as clear as the Scottish leader is trying to claim.
The Scottish First Minister said on Sunday morning that it would be “absurd and completely outrageous” if the UK Government went to court to block a second independence referendum.
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