THE Scottish Secretary should be handed new powers to call a second independence referendum, according to a new report by a former Scottish Labour leader and Yes Scotland’s former chief strategist.
In a report for Glasgow University’s Centre for Public Policy, Kezia Dugdale (below) and Stephen Noon have argued for the Scotland Office to be given Northern Ireland-style powers to declare another referendum – if a majority of Scots are seen to want independence.
The report, entitled Scotland and the Constitution: Agreeing a way forward, the authors said the “existing mechanism for triggering a unification referendum in Northern Ireland should be the basis for agreeing a pathway to a future independence referendum in Scotland”.
It added: “This would mean that the key test becomes whether or not it is likely that a majority of people would vote for independence in such a referendum. Meeting this test should place a legal duty on the UK Government to agree to a referendum.”
The report sets out that the powers to call another referendum would lie with the Scottish Secretary “but within a set of criteria previously agreed with the Scottish Government”.
It added: “The threshold agreed would be such that it did not act as an insurmountable barrier but rather served to confirm the solidity of pro-independence support.”
The proposal is likely to be met with scepticism from many on the Yes side – and with Unionists. The authors admitted: “With this proposal, we offer a model that could please nobody. However, we hope instead that it can break some of the political logjam on this question.”
But some within the SNP and wider Yes movement have long called for a Northern Ireland-style deal to settle the constitutional question in Scotland.
Through the Good Friday Agreement, which came after decades of bloodshed during the Troubles, the UK Government gave the concession to Irish nationalists that there would be a border poll if it appeared to the Northern Ireland Secretary that a majority would back a united Ireland.
The report noted that the Northern Ireland Secretary has the power to call a unification referendum “at any point” but is required to do so if there is majority support for unification.
Dugdale and Noon (below) argued that the appetite for independence should be measured “using a wide range of measures, from opinion polling to election results, to votes in Parliament” but that support would need to be “sustained over a period of time”.
They said the advantages of their proposal could “bring to an end a debate on process that has entangled Scottish, and in some ways also British, politics over these past years”.
The Greens argued against the proposal saying it would be "entrenching" power in Westminster.
Co-leader Patrick Harvie said: "It is the people of Scotland and the parliament we elect that should have the power to call a referendum, anything else is completely unsustainable.
“There is no reason for a decision like this to rest with the Secretary of State and the UK government, especially not when we have just had 14 years of Tory prime ministers that Scotland did not vote for and could do nothing to remove.
“Entrenching the power in Westminster would do nothing to make the issue go away. It would double down on a broken and undemocratic status quo and would only underline how far away Scotland is from having the power to make our own decisions like a normal country.”
An Alba spokesperson said: “It seems completely at odds that if the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland thinks there is sufficient support for a referendum then there can be one periodically but for Scotland Westminster thinks that democracy was a one-day only privilege we were given over 10 years ago.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: "We have reset the relationship between the UK and Scottish Government, ensuring that Scottish people and their communities are now rightly back at the beating heart of our missions to deliver for working people.
“People want their two governments working side by side – delivering higher growth, safer streets, cleaner energy, and greater opportunities – and that is our full focus.”
