Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon will meet this Thursday at a special “summit meeting” to discuss Covid recovery across the UK.
In what was seen as an attempt to reset relationships with the Scottish Government, the Prime Minister invited the First Minister to the conference immediately after the results of the Holyrood and Senedd elections.
His invitation was sent in a letter congratulating her on her election victory, but it did not mention whether he would be open to discussing a second independence referendum. In January he suggested a new vote should be ruled out until 2055.
Johnson's letter hailed the success of the UK in the Covid vaccine roll-out and emphasised the economic challenges will be a “serious shared responsibility”.
In his letter, which was also sent to the Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford and Arlene Foster, the Northern Irish First Minister, Johnson added: “Overcoming them will require us to show the same spirit of unity and co-operation that marked our fight against the pandemic”.
In her victory speech at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, the First Minister said Scots had voted for a second independence referendum and declared it "the will of the country".
She insisted that Westminster has no right to block a second vote.
“The timing of an independence referendum now should be a matter for Scottish Parliament, it should be for the judgement of the parliament to consider the position of covid and when the parliament considers the time is right," she said.
“That is not a decision for Boris Johnson or any Westminster politician. Of course my immediate job is to get on with steering us through that crisis but then it is for the people of Scotland to decide their own future.”
In a phone call the following day with Johnson, the First Minister said a second independence referendum is “a matter of when, not if”.
The SNP secured a historic fourth term at Holyrood with a pro-independence majority of MSPs returned despite tactical voting by pro-union supporters.
Senior Conservatives including Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove have questioned the First Minister's mandate to hold indyref2 despite her election win.
She has vowed to hold a new vote in the new parliamentary term and has said she wants it to take place by the end of 2023 so long as the Covid pandemic has passed.
A Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed to The National that the Covid recovery conference would take place on Thursday and would be held online. She added that more details would be given later today.
The First Minister has previously said she will attend the event.
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