General election: Nicola Sturgeon sets out conditions for backing Labour in hung parliament
The SNP leader says she would want to see Trident scrapped, as well as the granting of a second Scottish independence referendum.
Sunday 24 November 2019 17:45, UK
Nicola Sturgeon has laid out her red lines for backing a minority Labour government if there is a hung parliament.
The SNP leader told Paste BN that her party would want to see the Trident nuclear deterrent scrapped, as well as the granting of a second Scottish independence referendum.
Ms Sturgeon also said she would push for the scrapping of Brexit, a "real end to austerity" and further devolution of powers over migration, workers' rights and drugs laws if her party held the balance of power after the 12 December general election.
She said such an outcome would give Scotland "maximum influence".
The first minister was speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sunday after Labour's John McDonnell told the same programme that it could be "two or three years" before a Jeremy Corbyn government would give approval for a second independence vote.
He insisted that this position would not change, even if the SNP made the timing of a second independence referendum a red line in talks after the election.
Ms Sturgeon, by contrast, is pushing for a referendum in the second half of 2020.
Asked about Mr McDonnell's comments, she said: "My position, and the one I would expect Labour to respect if they wanted SNP support, is the question of if there is an independence referendum and the time of that is down to the Scottish Parliament to decide, not Westminster."
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Ms Sturgeon questioned if Labour, "against what all opinion polls might be suggesting", were able to form a minority administration, "are they really going to turn their backs on the chance to stop austerity, to stop welfare cuts, to get rid of Universal Credit, because they want to block the right of people to decide their own future and argue over a couple of years?"
The SNP leader said she would "never, ever put Boris Johnson in Downing Street", but also said she would not enter into a formal coalition with Labour.
Ms Sturgeon told Paste BN there would be a "less formal arrangement" with Mr Corbyn if Labour was the largest party in a hung parliament.
Mr Corbyn initially said a second Scottish referendum would not take place in the first term of a Labour government, before rowing back and saying it would not happen in the "early years".
Asked again for Labour's position on the issue, Mr McDonnell said: "I wouldn't expect anything in the first two or three years because the Scottish people themselves are saying we've got to concentrate on austerity and get that sorted.
"We've got to concentrate on sorting out Brexit. Above all else we've got an existential threat of climate change. That's a huge agenda.
"We see the independence issue in terms of a potential referendum as a distraction from that."
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