The Scottish Tory MSP lashed out at Nicola Sturgeon’s plans to hold a “gimmick, fake referendum” on Scottish independence amid a row between Holyrood and Westminster over permission to Indyref2. The Scottish Conservative chairman was clear on Sky News that in his view the SNP did not have the majority of Scots behind it on the issue of a second vote on Scottish independence.
Mr Hoy was told by Kay Burley of Sky News: “Actually there is nothing you can do to stop [the SNP] hold a referendum.
“It may not be legally binding, but if the people of Scotland say as part of that referendum that they want to break up the union then that would be very difficult for the Prime Minister to ignore.”
He will reply: “We bring you here in a very interesting area, if the SNP is proposing to hold some form of consultative or wildcat or illegal referendum it is pretty clear that the Scottish people don’t want another independence referendum. year.
“Let’s see what the Prime Minister says this afternoon.
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“It is not for me to write her Plan B, we do not want another independence referendum, we are on the side of the majority of Scots in that. So it is not for the Prime Minister and the SNP to explain what it is, they’re planning, but kind of a fake referendum for gimmicks that I think will bombard the Scottish people.”
Ms Sturgeon has insisted that Scots should be given “the democratic choice they voted for” in a second vote on independence.
The Scottish Prime Minister and SNP leader spoke out before delivering a “roadmap” statement outlining how she thinks a referendum could be held if Westminster continues to block its plans.
The 2014 referendum, in which voters north of the border chose to remain in the UK at 55% to 45%, took place after Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to a Section 30 injunction.
However, Ms Sturgeon said: “The people of Scotland have elected a parliament that is committed to giving them a choice over independence, and that democratic will must be respected.”
Ahead of her statement to Holyrood, the Prime Minister added: “In Scotland it is the people who are sovereign and always have been – and it is the will of the people that must prevail.
“That may be an inconvenient truth for our political opponents, but it is nevertheless a simple and unavoidable truth.”
She argued that continued efforts to “block that democracy will only weaken the position of the British government, here and internationally”.