WATCH: Nandy says Sturgeon has “brass neck” over independence statement

Lisa Nandy has said Nicola Sturgeon has “some brass neck” after the First Minister announced that she wants to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence in October 2023.

Speaking to Sky News, the Shadow Levelling Up Secretary said: “Nicola Sturgeon has some brass neck. She and her friends in the SNP were the ones who said that the independence referendum was a once-in-a-generation chance to settle the question.

“And what she’s done in the last 24 hours is nothing to do with the interests of Scotland. It is to do with the interests of the SNP. She’s launching an election bid.”

Nandy highlighted that there are currently 700,000 people on NHS waiting lists in Scotland, telling viewers: “If I were in charge in Scotland, I would be looking very seriously at how to tackle that crisis. This is the thing that is keeping families in Scotland awake at night, and she ought to be focusing on that.”

In a statement to MSPs on Tuesday, Sturgeon said she wants to hold a second referendum on October 19th 2023. The First Minister announced that she has asked the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of the Scottish government holding a consultative referendum without permission from Westminster.

She added that the SNP would seek to make the next general election a “de facto referendum” if the Supreme Court deemed the move to be unlawful, by having independence as the party’s only policy.

Addressing MSPs following Sturgeon’s statement, Anas Sarwar said: “The pandemic Nicola that said she wanted to pull us through is gone, and the partisan Nicola Sturgeon that wants to divide our country is back, pursuing a referendum that two-thirds of Scots don’t want right now.”

The Scottish Labour leader accused the First Minister of reneging on her promise to focus on Scotland’s post-Covid recovery and argued that she had instead decided to “pit Scot against Scot and focus on her priority, her obsession and her purpose”.