David Cameron is “living on borrowed time” and driving support for independence by alienating people living in Scotland, the country’s First Minister has said.
Nicola Sturgeon accused the Prime Minister of “continuing to ignore Scotland’s voice” in a speech in Edinburgh delivered on Friday morning.
“My message to David Cameron today is the same as it was when I met him just after the general election,” she told her audience.
“What happens to support for independence in the months and years to come will depend as much on what you do as it will on what we do.
“And, right now, you are living on borrowed time: If you continue to ignore Scotland's voice, if you continue to disrespect the choice that people across this country made in May, more and more people will conclude that Westminster simply can't deliver for Scotland.
David Cameron is opposed to a second referendum
“So, it is your choice, Prime Minister – but know that Scotland is watching.”
David Cameron has said he would not permit Scotland to hold a second independence referendum.
The SNP said earlier this month that it could call a second independence referendum for Scotland when the circumstances are right.
The party is to lay out the specific conditions under which it would consider a second plebiscite in its 2016 Holyrood elections manifesto.
Former Better Together director Alistair Darling warned on Tuesday that the UK establishment should not stand in the way of a second vote if the Scottish people genuinely wanted one.
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“My view is if people really, genuinely want to have a vote you are daft to deny it,” he told the newspaper,” he told The Times newspaper.
“It’s a bit like in Spain: the Spanish government seem determined not to hold a referendum [on Catalan independence] which always seemed to me to be just fanning the flames.
A poll released by the STV news channel earlier this month found that Scotland would vote for independence if a second referendum on leaving the UK was held tomorrow.
The Ipsos MORI survey found that a would-be ‘Yes’ campaign would have a nine-point lead over the ‘No’ camp.
53 per cent of Scottish voters would vote ‘Yes’ while 44 per cent would vote ‘No’, with three per cent undecided which way they would vote, the survey suggests.
This poll marks the first lead for leading the UK since the last referendum.
Half of those surveyed said they would like to see another referendum in the next five years, while 58 per cent said they would be in favour of another vote being held within ten years.
