PM’s decision an enormous miscalculation, feels Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon has accused Theresa May of using the snap general election as a chance to “move the UK to the right” and force through deeper spending cuts.Sturgeon said the prime minister’s decision was a “huge political miscalculation” because it would give voters a fresh chance to reject Conservative austerity and a hard Brexit, and give the Scottish National Party (SNP) a new mandate for an independence referendum.“She is clearly betting that the Tories can win a bigger majority in England given the utter disarray in the Labour party,” she said.“That makes it all the important that Scotland is protected from a Tory party which now sees the chance of grabbing control of government for many years to come and moving the UK further to the right – forcing through a hard Brexit and imposing deeper cuts in the process.“That means that this will be – more than ever before – an election about standing up for Scotland in the face of a right-wing, austerity-obsessed Tory government with no mandate in Scotland but which now thinks it can do whatever it wants and get away with it.”May’s decision to call a snap election throws Sturgeon’s plans for a second independence referendum into sharp relief.The first minister had been due to announce next week her plans to press for a referendum in the face of May’s refusal to countenance one, potentially including a bill setting up a referendum before the UK government approves one.With the SNP defending 56 of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats, Sturgeon is certain to use the general election as a test of Scottish public opinion on her calls for a referendum.However, the SNP faces tough decisions in two seats that opposition parties will contest hard, with the Tories confident they may be able to challenge the SNP in several areas where voters oppose independence.The SNP has suspended two MPs: Natalie McGarry in Labour’s former stronghold of Glasgow East, who is under investigation for financial impropriety, and Michelle Thomson in Edinburgh West, who is sitting as an independent pending police inquiries into her business dealings. Thomson’s seat is favoured by the Liberal Democrats, who will campaign to keep the UK as closely aligned to the EU as possible.The SNP will need to see whether McGarry will stand for re-election as an independent in Glasgow East and whether to select a new candidate for Edinburgh West.The snap election is a major gamble for the Tories. If Sturgeon wins a large majority of Scottish seats in the House of Commons in June, she will insist this is a renewed mandate for a new independence vote, piling pressure on May to agree to one.The Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, whose party is defending a single Westminster seat in Scotland, in Edinburgh South, said her party relished the opportunity presented by the general election and would campaign tirelessly for Corbyn to be prime minister.Labour lost 40 Scottish MPs at the 2015 general election and its chances of regaining any of those seats appear slender, with polls putting Scottish Labour on about 15%, roughly 30 points behind the SNP.“The polls are undoubtedly very challenging but as Jeremy Corbyn has said in the past we’re on an election footing and has been on an election footing,” Dugdale said. “We relish the opportunity to take on and defeat this Tory government.”