Lorna Slater has refused to say if she was aware of the contents of Nicola Sturgeon's independence speech in advance yesterday.
The Scottish Greens co-leader - who serves as Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity - was asked if the Scottish Government had communicated with her about what the First Minister was going to tell MSPs at Holyrood.
BBC presenter John Beattie asked the MSP five times about the content of the speech - and she refused to say if she had been given advanced notice.
READ MORE: Scottish independence LIVE as Nicola Sturgeon vows to hold referendum in October next year
Sturgeon's speech was kept a close secret with only a handful of people in government reportedly aware of what she would announce.
The SNP leader outlined plans to hold a second vote on Scottish independence on October 19, 2023.
With the UK Government refusing to grant consent for such a ballot to be held, Sturgeon is asking the UK Supreme Court to rule if Holyrood can hold a referendum without the backing of Westminster.
Following the speech Slater appeared alongside Scottish Lib Dems leader Alex Cole-Hamilton on radio to discuss what Sturgeon had announced.
Here's the exchange between John Beattie (JB) and Lorna Slater (LS):
JB : "Were you aware of the content of this speech before it was given?"
LS : "Everything was held obviously in confidentiality."
JB : "You weren’t?"
JB : "So you weren’t?"
LS : [silence]
JB : "You weren’t?"
LS : "The First Minister’s statement was not published before she spoke today."
JB : "But you didn’t see it either?"
LS : [silence]
Alex Cole-Hamilton: "Wow."
JB : "No. So tell me something, again help me, the de facto referendum."
LB : "I don’t know the nature of that term."
JB : You don’t know, alright, ok. You do not know what it means.
LS : The legal definition of that term I wouldn’t want to speculate on. I’m not a lawyer. What we do need to talk about is the Union and how it is damaging Scotland and the kind of country we can create through independence.
"That is the conversation we really need to have is a nationwide one about what kind of country we want to be."
Slater clarified the situation following the interview after Cole-Hamilton tweeted about the exchange.
She tweeted: "That's some pretty wild extrapolation there Alex.
"I didn't see the *statement* in advance as I'm not the FM's speechwriter. As with all elements of our cooperation agreement we discussed and agreed the *content* in advance."
Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs that if her plans to hold a vote were blocked by Supreme Court judges then she would use the next general election as a "de facto" referendum on independence.
During a radio interview today Deputy First Minister John Swinney claimed the SNP only needed a majority of seats in Scotland to begin negotiations, while a source close to Sturgeon had earlier insisted the Nationalists would need to win a majority of votes before starting breakaway talks.
The split in the leadership of the SNP was seized upon by Cole-Hamilton.
He said: “First sources close to Nicola Sturgeon suggested she wanted a majority of votes in a future general election to act as a mandate to kick off separation negotiations.
"Now the Deputy First Minister suggests he wants a majority of Scottish MPs. Meanwhile Lorna Slater just wants someone to explain what a de facto referendum is.
"We’re less than 24 hours into the nationalist’s latest cunning wheeze and already the wheels are falling off the clown car.
"They seem to have conceded that they are heading for a defeat in court and so they are brainstorming barmy schemes for what comes next.
"There’s no way the international community would recognise Scotland’s separation based on the nationalists winning 30 MPs on 35 per cent of the vote. They could go backwards and still claim victory.
"In the week in which Scotland recorded its worst figures for both cancer waits and sexual crimes, the SNP need to get their priorities straight."
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