Jeremy Corbyn has set the 2021 Holyrood election as his deadline for considering a second Scottish independence referendum.
The Labour leader said he would rule out an indy poll in “the early years, the first two years at least” of a Labour government, making it clear the outcome of 2021 Scottish election would be decisive in staging IndyRef2.
In a high-octane two hours of the BBC’s Question Time on Friday night, where four party leaders were cross-examined by a TV studio audience, Corbyn also revealed for the first time that he would adopt a “neutral” stance in Labour’s preferred second EU referendum campaign.
He said that was so that, if he becomes prime minister in three weeks’ time, he could be trusted to implement the result of a second Brexit vote.
The Labour leader has avoided answering how he would vote in a second referendum until now.
He drew cheers and groans in equal measure from the audience as he confirmed his neutrality and sought to explain how a Labour government would solve the Brexit chaos.
He said: “One, we negotiate a credible deal with the European Union. Secondly, we will put that alongside Remain in a referendum.
“My role, and the role of our government will be to ensure that referendum is held in a fair atmosphere, and we will abide by the result of it.
“And I will adopt as prime minister, if I am at the time, a neutral stance so that I can credibly carry out the results of that to bring our communities and country together, rather than continuing in endless debate about the EU and Brexit.
“This will be a trade deal with Europe or remaining in the EU. That will be the choice that we put before the British public within six months.
During her 30 minutes, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, who wants to hold IndyRef2 next year, quickly named her price for supporting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street if there’s another hung parliament.
She told the audience: “Obviously, I would ask for and expect Jeremy Corbyn to respect the right of the Scottish people to determine their own future.”
On the timing of IndyRef2, she added: “Having heard Jeremy Corbyn, do you think he’s going to walk away from the chance to end austerity, to protect the NHS, to stop Universal Credit, simply because he wants, for a couple of years, to prevent Scotland to have the right to self-determination?”
The Scottish Conservatives were also quick to leap on Corbyn’s admission that he could stage IndyRef2 within two years of entering Downing Street.
Paul Masterton, Tory candidate for East Renfrewshire, accused Corbyn of “setting the clock ticking on Labour’s backing for a second independence referendum”.
He added: “In his own words, he is not a Unionist. He is now separatism’s best ally.”
In a format that put each of the four party leaders under similar scrutiny from a studio audience, it was the Lib Dem’s Jo Swinson who fared worst.
Audience members tore into the Lib Dem leader over her policy to ignore the Brexit referendum and her role as minister in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition that took Britain into a landscape of austerity and food banks.
Tory leader Boris Johnson was challenged on truth, trust, racism, austerity and the NHS – and took a battering for all these issues.
The audience groaned when the Prime Minister turned a question on how important it was for someone in his position to always tell the truth on to Brexit.
He said: “I think that the issue of trust in politics is central to this election – and fundamental to the corrosion of trust in politics at the moment is the failure of politicians to deliver Brexit.”
.jpg?w=600)
