INDYREF planning is firmly back on the agenda as the threat from Covid recedes, it has been announced.

Both Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney have said in recent days that the Scottish Government is back to drawing up plans for a second referendum.

Planning was suspended from March 2020 because of the pandemic but it is now understood work is back on track - with Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson confirming to Parliament last week a team was working on referendum planning.

Unionist parties have reacted with fury to the news and accused the Scottish Government of having the wrong priorities - despite there being a pro-independence majority in Holyrood.

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Sturgeon said in an interview on Sunday she will decide the date for introducing a bill on a second referendum “in the coming weeks”.

Conservatives

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: “Nicola Sturgeon likes to talk up her ‘cautious’ approach - except when it comes to another divisive referendum. It’s reckless to charge ahead with her plan to split up Scotland when there’s an economic crisis to tackle.”

Tory MSP Megan Gallagher responded to a video of the First Minister confirming independence planning was underway, saying: “Our young people still face uncertainty over exams and still need to wear face masks in classrooms. Priorities eh?”

Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, questioned how the Scottish Government could hope to legislate for another bill following a Supreme Court defeat on competence last year. 

He said: “What will be fascinating to see here is if/how the Lord Advocate certifies the Bill as within devolved competence. 

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“Impossible to see how any credible Scots lawyer could justify doing so given ruling of @UKSupremeCourt in the ECRC case.

Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, simply responded to the news with a gif of a woman responding with despair to the news the then-prime minister Theresa May had called a snap General Election in 2017. 

Labour

Labour’s Michael Marra accused the Government of having “no plan” to deal with the fallout of the pandemic. 

He added: “The impact on education of the pandemic is only beginning to be understood and the government have no plan to deal with any of the fallout.

“There is no sign of the infrastructure to cope with new waves or variants. The pandemic crisis has not ended. Far from it.”

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Glasgow MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy added: “If a downward slope of the virus clears the way for anything, it should 100% be action to end child poverty, get the NHS back on track, fix education, create good and well paid jobs and pick up the pace on using our social security powers. Not another Indy ref.”

LibDem

LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, in a statement to the press on Sunday, accused the First Minister of “preparing the case for independence” instead of focusing on the country’s recovery from Covid. 

He said: “The First Minister promised to put the recovery first. 

“Last week Nicola Sturgeon ordered her MSPs to vote down my plans for a new Burnout Prevention Plan for NHS staff in desperate need of extra protection.

“The news that her government is busy preparing the case for independence instead says everything about this SNP/Green Government’s priorities during this hardest of winters.”