Nicola Sturgeon has refused to respond to claims by her party’s Westminster leader that indyref2 could take place this year.
At her covid briefing, the First Minister sidestepped a question about an early referendum by saying she would use the event to talk about coronavirus.
Sturgeon has said she supports indyref2 in the early part of the next Holyrood term, but MP Ian Blackford believes it could take place even earlier.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Blackford said: “Of course what I would say is that the first priority of the Government is dealing with the Covid crisis, it’s about keeping people safe, it’s about the acceleration that we’ve seen with the vaccine programme, it’s about taking off the measures of lockdown as and when we can.
“But we do that based on data, we do that based on evidence, we do that based on keeping people safe.
“When we’ve got to that position of safety, that would be the right time to have the referendum.”
He continued: “(Scottish Constitution Secretary Mike Russell) has talked about a six-month period once the legislation is triggered which could be in June, so it could be the case we could face a referendum as early as late 2021.
“But the key thing is that we put in place the circumstances that allow that to happen, whenever it happens, and that we have an inclusive debate with everybody in Scotland about the kind of country that they want to live in.”
At her media press conference, Sturgeon was asked about the comments and whether it would be appropriate to have a referendum when the country was trying to recover from the pandemic.
She said: “I’m not getting into political questions right now. This is a covid briefing. I’m going to stick to that today. My focus is on covid and doing what is right around covid for as long as it takes. That’s what I am here to talk about today.”
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