11-08-2025
Nicola Sturgeon admits Yes side 'was not ready' when 2014 independence referendum campaign started
Nicola Sturgeon admits Yes side 'was not ready' when 2014 independence referendum campaign started
The former SNP leader admitted the pro-independence campaign wasn't ready for the "scrutiny" going up by "several gears" when a referendum was agreed in 2012.
Nicola Sturgeon was speaking with ITV News
(Image: YouTube)
Nicola Sturgeon has admitted the Yes side was "nowhere near ready" when Scottish independence referendum campaign kicked-off in 2012.
A plebiscite was agreed between Alex Salmond and then prime minister David Cameron after the SNP won a majority of MSPs at the 2011 Holyrood election. It triggered a two-year campaign which culminated in the vote on September 2014, when the No side won by 55 per cent to 45 per cent.
Sturgeon was a senior figure in the Yes campaign and oversaw the drafting of the Scottish Government White Paper which was supposed to sell the benefits of independence to the public.
Speaking with ITV News presenter Julie Etchingham, the former first minister admitted the pro-indy campaign had been slow to start. Etchingham told Sturgeon: "You admit the SNP was nowhere near ready for it".
The former first minister replied: "Uh, we weren't. We were I think, caught a bit off guard. We hadn't done, to be candid enough, of the substantive heavy lifting work - that we then, you know, did in advance of, of the vote in 2014.
She continued: "We went from, you know, what had been the case, you know, we supported independence, we argued for it in a very, sort of big picture way. The other side said it was a terrible idea. But as soon as it became clear that there was actually gonna be a referendum, the scrutiny went up several gears. And that's what we weren't ready for in that moment."
She also claimed almond 'hadn't read' the white paper on independence, as she spoke of her 'cold fury' with her former leader over his 'abdication of responsibility' on the key document.
The 670-page long paper was prepared by the Scottish Government in the run-up to the 2014 referendum, with the aim of answering questions about independence ahead of the crucial vote.
But in a TV interview ahead of the publication of her memoir Frankly, Sturgeon, who was deputy first minister at the time, insisted that Salmond 'really didn't engage in the work of the drafting or the compilation of the White Paper at all'.
Speaking about her former boss, Sturgeon said: 'He was the leader, he was the First Minister, and he hadn't read it.'
Joanna Cherry, a former SNP MP, responded tonight: "If Nicola Sturgeon thinks the SNP were ill prepared for the 2014 independence referendum, then why hasn't she used the last 10 years to address the issues the white paper did not adequately address?
"Many of us argued strongly for this behind the scenes and she shut us down."
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