In a friendly tone, but clearly on the matter, Johnson, who wanted to travel to the northernmost British part of the country on Wednesday, ignored an invitation from Sturgeon for a one-on-one conversation. “Relations between London and Edinburgh are cold and essentially – if not publicly – hostile,” said political scientist Kirsty Hughes of the DPA news agency.
The dispute is fueled by the core question – not addressed in the invitation and the rejection – Sturgeon’s call for a new Scottish independence referendum. Your Scottish National Party (SNP) wants a referendum, they want out of the UK and back to the EU. She was rewarded for this course in the parliamentary elections in May. The SNP narrowly failed because of the absolute majority. But together with the Greens, who are also advocating separation from London, it has enough votes in Parliament in Edinburgh. According to media reports, a formal cooperation is imminent.
Sturgeon confidently announced that he would launch a referendum in the coming year. But the situation is complicated. Most experts are of the opinion that a referendum is illegal without approval from London – and Johnson’s government has so far rejected it. She refers to the 2014 survey, when a slim majority was in favor of staying. The SNP, on the other hand, emphasizes that with Brexit, which the Scots reject, the conditions have fundamentally changed.
For the prime minister, his two-day visit to Scotland – his first since the general election – is a ride on the razor blade. “Johnson knows that he is unpopular in Scotland,” said expert Hughes. “His visits are of particular benefit to those who support independence.” Critics accuse the prime minister of an “England First” policy at the expense of the other parts of the country. This is probably one of the reasons why the trip was only known at short notice.
When Johnson went to Scotland in January, Sturgeon criticized the visit at the height of the third corona wave as unnecessary. Now she invited her opponent explicitly. She had heard that he was going to Scotland, she wrote pointedly. This is a good chance to meet in person and talk about the way out of the corona pandemic. In the UK, health policy is a matter of the country. “We differ politically, but our governments must work together where possible.” There is also a need for coordination on climate policy, because Great Britain is hosting the world climate conference COP in November – in Glasgow, Scotland.
But Sturgeon would certainly have mentioned the “IndyRef2”, as the independence referendum is called. Because it is important to find out whether the British government has changed course. At the weekend, Minister of State Michael Gove, himself a Scotsman, surprised everyone with the statement that London would not stand in the way if there was a “firm will” in the north to hold a referendum.
Gove did not say what should be the decisive factor. “They know that they cannot prevent a democratic decision,” said a high-ranking politician in Edinburgh, referring to the election victory of the DPA’s independence supporters. “You want to gain time.” Because the time speaks for the Union at the moment: if up to 58 percent of Scots were in surveys for months, it is currently less than 50 percent – and the trend is downward.
Johnson assured “dear Nicola” that he was very interested in a face-to-face meeting. As discussed, the best setting for this is a meeting in which the heads of government from the other parts of Wales and Northern Ireland also take part. “He avoids Sturgeon – essentially out of political cowardice,” said political scientist Hughes. Johnson is on fire: when he was in Sturgeon’s Bute House in July 2019, he was booed by demonstrators – and left the building through the back door.