UK NEWS

INDEPENDENCE ROW ECLIPSES BY-ELECTION

Alex Salmond said apparent differences in policy were an “amazing own goal” for the Conservatives

Sunday November 8,2009

By Ben Borland

A ROW over independence was last night threatening to overshadow the final weekend of campaigning in the Glasgow North East by-election.

Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie yesterday said the “cat was out of the bag” after the SNP candidate, David Kerr, confessed a referendum would cost the taxpayer £9million.

But the Nationalists hit back with an attack on the Tories’ “utter hypocrisy” after it emerged David Cameron has backed a vote to change the constitution in Wales.

Last month, Mr Cameron told Sunday Express readers a referendum on Scottish independence was “not on the agenda” if he becomes Prime Minister.

First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday said the apparent differences in policy were an “amazing own goal” for the Conservatives.

Speaking on the campaign trail in Milton, Glasgow, he added: “That [£9million] is a good estimate of what a referendum would cost. The Tories were going to have a referendum on Europe but that has been taken out of their hands, and they support a referendum in Wales.

“At Labour’s party conference Gordon Brown announced a referendum on the alternative vote, which nobody is in favour of. How come it can be used for other things but not for Scotland’s constitutional future? It is a ridiculous position.”

Mr Kerr said in a television interview that a referendum would cost about £9million but the cost of freedom would be “priceless”.

Ms Goldie, who was also drumming up votes in the constituency yesterday, said: “The cat is out the bag. In the middle of Labour’s recession, where belts will have to be tightened, the SNP wants to spend £9million of taxpayers’ money on Alex Salmond’s rigged referendum.”

Labour’s Glasgow North East candidate Willie Bain said the money would be better spent paying the salaries of “500 nurses”.

He added: “I want to create new jobs, not separate Scotland from the rest of the UK. It is an obscene waste of money during a recession.”

Constitution Minister Mike Russell said the figure was an estimate based on the 1997 devolution referendum and the total cost would be revealed when the Referendum Bill is published next year.

He joked: “David Cameron’s Welsh ‘leek’ has left the Scottish Tories looking like prize neeps.”

The First Minister was in buoyant mood ahead of Thursday’s vote, although he stopped short of predicting another “political earthquake” like the SNP’s victory in Glasgow East last year.

Most polls predict Labour will hold the seat with a reduced majority, in one of Britain’s most deprived areas where they have held power for 74 years. FIGHT: Alex Salmond and SNP candidate David Kerr with voter and Labour’s Willie Bain, below, hearing strong views from a member of the public