Nicola Sturgeon has been warned that Scotland will suffer because her attention has been diverted from the nation’s priorities to her push for another divisive independence referendum.
At First Minister’s Questions, Douglas Ross criticised SNP plans to try to hold another vote on breaking up the UK in October next year amid a global cost-of-living crisis.
The Scottish Conservative leader highlighted Scotland’s drugs-death crisis and the recent census shambles as examples of what goes wrong when ministers become distracted by their drive for independence.
He added that bringing forward a Referendum Bill – which would be illegal in the absence of a Section 30 order – when there were so many other vital issues facing Ms Sturgeon’s government was unjustifiable, especially when the Scottish public don’t want one.
Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross said: “This SNP Government have said their plan is to try to hold another divisive independence referendum in October next year.
“But Nicola Sturgeon can’t even say if a ferry will float by then. She won’t have closed the school attainment gap by then, she won’t have returned NHS services to normal by then and she won’t have cleared court backlogs by then.
“It’s unacceptable these pressing issues are playing second fiddle to another divisive referendum. You can’t focus on improving the country while trying to break it apart.
“We can see right now what happens when this government is distracted.
“The census was a shambles because the Constitution Secretary was too busy updating the UK-bad bar charts to count the number of people in Scotland.
“Similarly, on drugs deaths, the First Minister, as she admitted herself, took her eye off the ball and people lost their lives.
“Her priorities are all wrong at the worst possible moment. We’ve just gone through a pandemic, war in Europe has hiked energy prices, there’s a global cost-of-living crisis.
“It’s a time to pull together – and focus on improving public services, on creating jobs, on restoring schools, on fighting crime, on supporting our NHS.
“Instead of focusing on what really matters, Nicola Sturgeon tries to claim another divisive referendum is a silver bullet that would magically fix all the issues her government has created.
“Shamefully, the SNP’s obsession with a referendum next year is more important to the First Minister than the people of Scotland’s priorities.”