Scottish independence referendum: Lib Dem leader Clegg says vote would be 'wrong'

Published on Monday 21 September 2009 10:28

LIBERAL Democrat leader Nick Clegg today insisted holding a referendum on independence for Scotland would be wrong.

Mr Clegg claimed having such a vote was "obviously an obsession" for Alex Salmond, the SNP leader and Scottish First Minister.

But the Lib Dem insisted the majority of his party agreed with him and Scottish leader Tavish Scott that such a poll should not take place.

Mr Clegg spoke out after the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth heard calls for the party to allow a referendum on Scottish independence to take place in order to argue the case for the Union.

Kevin Lang, the party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Edinburgh North and Leith, said a referendum could "settle the issue which I fear is haunting Scottish politics".

But Mr Clegg argued that the majority of Scots wanted extra powers for Holyrood – as recommended by the Calman Commission which examined devolution – rather than independence from the rest of the UK.

The Liberal Democrat leader told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "Politics is about priorities and we know from opinion polls, we know from the debate about the Calman Commission, that the vast majority of the Scottish people want to have further devolution to Scotland, which is what we advocate, further powers over money, over a range of policies. That's what they want.

"But do we really need in Scotland at a time when the economy is in many places in tatters, when many, many families are struggling, do we need to indulge in Alex Salmond's pet project of an independence referendum, when the vast majority of the Scottish people we know already don't want that."

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Mr Clegg added that in previous elections Scottish voters had had the chance to vote for "a single issue party which only believes in independence which is the SNP".

And he said: "A majority of them didn't".

Responding to the calls from within his party for an independence referendum, Mr Clegg said: "Tavish Scott and myself we don't run a sect, we run a political party with different views.

"But the majority of us in the party believe it would be wrong at this time, where a lot of Scottish families are facing real difficulties, really struggling, struggling to make ends meet, it would be the wrong thing for Alex Salmond then to consume a huge amount of time and energy on an independence referendum, when we know what people want is what for instance the Calman Commission recommended, which is more power to Scotland but within the union of the United Kingdom."

Mr Salmond yesterday defended his plans for a referendum on independence, which the Nationalists hope to hold later next year.

The Scottish First Minister said: "We're not proposing to have a referendum now, we're proposing it next year when we believe the economy will be moving out of recession, and we also believe that the arguments for having economic powers are actually being made by the situation we are in at the present moment."