There will not be an independence referendum within the term of the next Holyrood parliament even if the SNP stays in power, Anas Sarwar has said.
Labour has dropped drastically in the polls for next year’s Holyrood election over the last few months. The party was once leading and is now predicted to suffer its worst result since devolution.
But the Scottish Labour leader said the UK Government still will not grant an independence referendum, even if the SNP wins again in 2026 and a pro-independence majority returns to Holyrood.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Show on the final day of his party’s conference in Glasgow, Sarwar said Scottish Labour would “prove the pollsters wrong” in 2026 and win the election.
He added there would be “no independence referendum in the term of the next parliament” and that other issues should take priority.
“We believe the focus of the next parliament has to be clearing those NHS backlogs. Having that national emergency, the focus has got to be stopping the government’s addiction to waste.”
Labour will fight to “win the trust of the people of Scotland” and win the election, he said, adding: “On the issue of the referendum, people will see over the course of the last four years, I’m not going to turn my back on any Scot in terms of how we build that case for a stronger, better Scotland,” he said.
“We might ultimately disagree on the final destination for Scotland: I don’t support an independence referendum, I don’t support independence. That will be the position in our manifesto.”
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