Douglas Ross has announced the Scottish Conservatives will not take part in any referendum that is not legally binding.
During her independence speech to Holyrood Nicola Sturgeon announced that the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, the Scottish Government's most senior law officer, had agreed to refer the matter of "legal clarity" to the UK Supreme Court.
The First Minister stated: "The Lord Advocate has agreed to make a reference of the provisions in the Bill to the Supreme Court."
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Sturgeon said this process was under way "as I speak" saying that this "will be filed with the Supreme Court this afternoon".
In response to the FM's statement, Ross hit out at Sturgeon. He said: "A potential illegal referendum next year is the wrong priority for Scotland.
"It would distract attention away from our recovery. It will damage efforts to rebuild our country after Covid. It is the last thing a clear majority of Scottish people want.
"The First Minister speaks of fear - but what concerns us all is the price Scotland pays for her continued obsession with another referendum.
"So we won't play Nicola Sturgeon's games. We won't take part in a pretend poll when there's real work to be done.
"Real work on the global cost of living crisis. Real work to invest in public services. Real work to rebuild our economy. Those are our priorities - and they're the real priorities of people across Scotland as well.
"Instead of focusing on the right priorities, Nicola Sturgeon is railroading this Parliament into talking about the SNP's obsession."
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said focus has shifted away from covid when cases are still on the rise.
He said: “The First Minister gave her game away in this statement – this is actually about general election and the SNP having some relevance in it. It is not actually about the Scottish people.
“It’s important to recognise the context of the election campaign last year. We were still a country living under Covid restrictions.
"Over 10,000 of our fellow citizens had lost their lives. Nicola Sturgeon said during that campaign that people who didn’t support a referendum or independence through the recovery should vote for her safe in the knowledge that that would be her priority.
"Covid hasn’t gone away and our recovery hasn’t even started. Since the election 4,000 more have lost their lives, 41 in the last week, due to covid."
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