THE former editor of the Sunday Times has claimed Nicola Sturgeon “changed her tune” on independence to bag votes – despite a referendum being a key manifesto pledge.

Martin Ivens, who was editor of the Sunday Times from 2013 to 2020, made the claims in an opinion piece for Bloomberg that ran in the Japan Times on Sunday.

The journalist, 62, inferred that due to low support for independence in a poll during the election campaign, Sturgeon had steered the SNP strategy away from the constitutional question.

He said that instead of making an “overt pitch” for a second referendum, Sturgeon and the SNP focused on the differences between key policy areas in Scotland and England.

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However, the piece fails to add that independence was a key pledge for the SNP, that the party’s manifesto for 2021 included a section dedicated to indyref2 and with the aim of holding a vote in the second half of the parliamentary term.

Ivens wrote: “Support for a referendum on independence actually fell during Scotland’s mid-terms election campaign.

“The most recent polls have shown 47% against and 44% in favor, while crucial undecided voters remains at 9%.

“Only a quarter of Scots would like a referendum this year or next, and 45% want one in the lifetime of the new Scottish parliament.

“Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, changed her tune accordingly during the campaign. She told voters that a vote for the SNP was 'not voting for independence'.

"In 2014 the nationalists lost the referendum by a 10-point margin.

“This time around, rather than making an overt pitch for ‘Indyref2’, she emphasized separateness from England on key policies.

“Once she secured an impressive fourth term in office for her party, just shy of an outright majority, she immediately went back to demanding a referendum. If she hadn’t, she would have faced the fury of party fundamentalists, which shows the delicacy of her position.

“That the combined vote share of the Unionist parties barely tipped 50% doesn’t bode well for her.”

Ivens went on to suggest that Sturgeon’s aim will now be to “goad” Boris Johnson into “behaving like an autocrat”.

Ivens then goes on to say the SNP should be “forced” to show its hand on what independence would look like and that the party has had “many years” to provide a blueprint.

Sturgeon has gone on the record multiple times to say that a white paper would be provided, as it was in 2014, ahead of any independence referendum, as so many things have changed since then.

Ivens also regurgitates the Unionist line that Scotland is “subsidised” by London.

Sturgeon has previously said she rejects that argument as she said on Marr on May 9: “Scotland pays its taxes in the same way people in England pay their taxes.”