Ian Blackford, the leader of the SNP at Westminster, challenged Boris Johnson to call an election, contradicting one of his senior MPs, Allyn Smith, who just hours earlier said the SNP did not want one.
However, he refused to say whether the SNP would hold an election on the “single issue” of independence, despite it being part of Ms Sturgeon’s plan to create a Scottish state.
Opposition parties said the stance exposed the “ridiculousness” of Ms Sturgeon’s plan, revealed only last week, to try to claim the general election was actually a referendum on leaving the UK.
Asked on Tuesday whether the snap election would be held as a de facto referendum, Mr Blackford said: “If there is an election before then [the Supreme Court ruling] of course, we’ll be thinking long and hard about how we’re going to fight this election. But it will be about the right of Scotland to hold a referendum and be an independent country.
An SNP spokesman later said independence would be “at the heart” of any upcoming general election campaign. However, he refused to say whether it would be the single-question “de facto referendum” campaign outlined by Ms Sturgeon.
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