Former Scottish Conservative councilor Tony Miklinski accused the SNP of “missing money left and right and centre”, saying the party “knows” it can “get away with pretty much anything”. This came after it became known that the Scottish government has earmarked £20 million for a second independence referendum. Earlier this week, Ms Sturgeon said she plans to hold a referendum on October 19, 2023.
In 2014, Scotland voted 55 to 45 percent against independence.
On the cost of a second referendum, Miklinski said: “It is a national scandal.
“People here have become used to national scandals.
†[The SNP are] spend four or five times as much on a few ferries, [misspending] money left right and center and receiving £12 billion in grants a year from Westminster as the UK’s contribution to the Scottish budget.
“That £12bn is roughly equivalent to the NHS budget.
“It was supposed to go on day 1” [after independence]†
“So the kind of financial honesty and common sense is getting off the boat here because basically after 15 years the SNP knows they can get away with pretty much anything.
“They can get away with pretty much anything because their supporters would vote for a dead donkey if it were a constituency, as long as it was a dead donkey from the SNP.”
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Ms Sturgeon replied: “Each year the Scottish Government is currently required to invest more than £700million to mitigate the impact of the Westminster policies Scotland did not vote for – the bedroom tax, the rape clause, the removal of Universal Credit.
“So yeah – I think £20 million, or 0.05 per cent of the total government budget, to give the people of this country the chance to choose a better future is and will be a really good investment.”
Explaining why the SNP is still pursuing a second referendum despite the country voting against independence in 2014, Mr Miklinski accused the SNP of an “obsession” with breaking away from the UK.
He said: “[Nicola Sturgeon] has been in power for 15 years and they are promising a second independence referendum since the day after they failed in 2014.
And party activists are urging her to answer when they hold a second independence referendum.
“They can only keep that up for so long without doing anything.
“So she is, to some extent, pressed by her own party’s appetite and obsession with holding a second independence referendum.”