FIRST Minister John Swinney has responded to the Scottish Labour leader, “accepting” that Scotland has the right to decide its own future saying, “we now need to turn that principle into an opportunity”.
The new leader of Scottish Labour, Michael Marra, said that Scotland has the right to decide its future in an interview with STV News on Monday.
Marra’s comments come ahead of a debate in Holyrood on Tuesday where MSPs will vote on Scotland’s right to choose its constitutional future.
He added that it is now up to the SNP to put in “the hard yards” to lay out the case for Scottish independence for the people of Scotland.
Responding to Marra’s comments, Scotland’s First Minister has said “this is a hugely significant moment” for the country.
“For the first time since 2014, Scottish Labour accept Scotland’s right to decide our own future, just as the Prime Minister has,” Swinney said.
“We now need to turn that principle into an opportunity for people to make their voice heard.”
Supporters of the Scottish Government's motion have said tomorrow’s vote is not about backing independence but “the fundamental principle that Scotland should have the right to decide our own future”.
It is expected to be backed with the help of the Scottish Greens.
Ahead of the vote, Marra told STV News: “I believe that the people of Scotland have the right to decide their future, and they did so in 2014.
“In 1997, they gave an unequivocal answer on both of those occasions. And the challenge, I know in the Parliament this week that the SNP are going to have to be held to, is how they build that settled will of the Scottish people that we actually produced in the 1980s and 1990s when I was but a boy.
“The Labour Party went about the job about delivering that settled will when answering the questions that people had.
“Now that’s the hard yards that the SNP has to do.”
Last week, Swinney said there should be “no obstacle” to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland being “able to determine their own future”.
The SNP leader also claimed that Andy Burnham would be the “last prime minister of the United Kingdom” after the Prime Minister laid out in the House of Commons earlier this month the conditions for a second independence referendum.
Burnham said at the time that the rules governing when a repeat of the 2014 vote could be held should be “exactly the same” as those for an Irish reunification referendum.
The Good Friday Agreement states that the UK Northern Ireland Secretary “shall” call a referendum on Irish reunification if it looks likely that the people would vote in support.
Swinney said recent polling has repeatedly shown a majority in favour of leaving the union while the recent Holyrood election returned a majority of pro-independence MSPs.
However, he said the country had faced “obstruction” from the Labour government, which has repeatedly rejected SNP calls for another referendum under the stewardship of Keir Starmer.
“The people of Scotland are entitled to decide their own future,” he said during a press conference.
Swinney has also called for a second referendum on Scottish independence to be held within the next five years, with a vote taking place in the current parliamentary term.
He said: “The people of Scotland, if given the choice of independence in a referendum, will take that choice, because all of the information that we see in front of us about the trends in opinion polling indicate that’s the preference of the people of Scotland.”
