THE First Minister has warned Boris Johnson he cannot “imprison” Scotland in a union against its will and “bludgeon” the nation into accepting his view of the world.
Nicola Sturgeon said it was unsustainable for the Tories to keep saying no to a fresh independence referendum as she joined the SNP’s raft of newly-elected MPs at the V&A museum in Dundee.
She spoke with the Prime Minister in a phone call on Friday following the election, after which Downing Street said Johnson had “made clear how he remained opposed to a second independence referendum”.
However, Sturgeon yesterday said she had “politely” pointed out to him that the Scottish Tories – after fighting the election on the issue of opposition to indyref2 – had lost more than half their seats.
She said: “It was a watershed election on Thursday and it’s very clear that Scotland wants a different future to the one chosen by much of the rest of the UK.
“Scotland showed its opposition to Boris Johnson and the Tories, said no again to Brexit, and made very clear that we want the future of Scotland, whatever that turns out to be, to be decided by people who live here.
“You can’t bludgeon a nation into accepting your view of the world when it is made very clear that it doesn’t have that view of the world.
“It couldn’t really be any clearer from the results of this election that Scotland doesn’t want a Boris Johnson government, it doesn’t want to leave the European Union, and it wants to be able to determine its own future, whatever that future turns out to be.”
Sturgeon said the UK will only continue to exist by consent.
“This idea that the Tories can just say no and sort of imprison Scotland in a union against its will, I just don’t think will hold,” she said.
“The Union can only continue to exist by consent if the Scottish people want it to.
“And you have to be prepared to allow the Scottish people to choose if you want to make the argument that it should be part of the Union.
“So if Boris Johnson has confidence in the case for the Union and the UK, and for Scotland staying part of that, he should have the guts to make that case and let people decide because he won’t get away with just saying no and trying to bludgeon the nation of Scotland into seeing the world as he does, which most of us don’t.”
She also said the prospect of a Johnson government for the next five years is “worrying for people”.
“It’s a grim reality and in my view, it makes that case for Scotland being able to choose something different all the more urgent and all the more important,” she added.
Signatures on the SNP’s Yes pledge jumped by six figures over 24 hours. Around 300,000 had put their name to the petition, hosted at www.yes.scot, on Friday. By yesterday evening that number had risen to 427,300.
READ MORE: Analyst predicts FM to seek permanent transfer of indyref power
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