3 days ago
No independence referendum while I am PM, says Keir Starmer
"It's not a priority," Keir Stamer told Good Morning Scotland while in Glasgow on Monday, with the interview released on Tuesday.
Starmer stressed the need for Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom in order to remain safe as he released his defence review.
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First Minister John Swinney has established his strategy as building "demonstrable support" for independence through Government. Starmer said "nobody's raising that with me as their first priority", adding: "certainly in the discussions I'm having with the first minister.
"We're talking about jobs, energy, security and dealing with the cost of living crisis."
He added: "I think it's really important to focus on the priorities that matter most.
"We got a big election win last year on the basis that we would stabilise the economy and ensure that on that foundation we built a stronger Scotland in a stronger United Kingdom and that's what I intend to do."
When asked whether SNP winning a majority in Holyrood would change his mind, he said: "No, it's not a priority".
The SNP leader recently said taking Scotland out of the UK was the reason he got involved in politics more than four decades ago, before adding that it will 'remain a significant issue' under his leadership.
Asked last month whether independence had been put on the back burner since he became First Minister, he told the PA news agency that he had to focus 'directly' on Scots' priorities.
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He said: 'I think anyone listening to the speech that I set out last week would see that I'm setting out an agenda about how, on a number of different fronts, whether it's on migration, whether it's about the economy, whether it's about Brexit, that Scotland needs the powers of independence to enable us to prosper as a country, and that's the argument I'll make in the forthcoming period.
'What I've recognised is that the SNP had to make sure that we could address very directly the priorities of the people of Scotland.
'We've done that, and we're doing that, but as we focus on the choices that lie ahead, Scotland's got to have the option of independence, and they'll have that under my leadership.'
