The SNP has demanded that ministers publish unreleased documents on Scottish independence polling. A Freedom of Information request has revealed that the Cabinet Office has conducted polling on the issue since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister. The department has refused to publish the results of this polling.
Transparency concerns raised
Former SNP MP Tommy Sheppard, who has been involved in fighting for the UK Government to reveal results of previous unreleased polls, said: “I don’t have any objection to the Cabinet Office or the Government consulting the public to inform policy development.” Speaking to the Sunday National, he added: “But if they’re going to spend taxpayers’ money on doing that, then the taxpayer has a right to know what the results are.”
Mr Burnham at Prime Minister’s Questions in September said that the conditions for Scottish independence should be “exactly the same” as for Irish unification. At the time, Mr Burnham said that there would have to be “a clear consensus [and] I am not aware that there is a majority of public support for another referendum, and until that changes, there won’t be one”. Mr Burnham’s official spokesman declined to explain what he had meant by a “clear consensus”.
Devolution offer and independence path
In October, Mr Burnham was in Lanarkshire to make a “serious and genuine offer” to the Scottish Government to put more control “in the hands of local people” through devolution. After that speech, the Prime Minister was again asked about Scotland’s path to independence. He said: “I just feel we all have to move beyond the constitutional questions.”
Mr Sheppard said: “Burnham talks all the time about transparency in government and the Government not being centralised, autocratic and remote from the people. So, if that’s true, then how can he possibly justify using taxpayers’ money for policy development research and not releasing the results? He’s said that if there was growing support for independence, then it would be proper to look at another referendum. So, if he’s asking the question, I think we all have a right to know what the answer was.”
Demands for full publication
SNP MSP Calum Kerr has demanded the results and documents on the polls be published in full, with the costs having also been concealed by the UK Government. He said: “The UK Labour Government must publish these documents and results in full, and you can only conclude that their unwillingness to disclose the costs demonstrates this programme of research must be extensive. Poll after poll shows independence is the preferred position of the Scottish people. Three out of four nations in the UK are led by pro-independence First Ministers, and the British Prime Minister has agreed it is for the people of Scotland to decide our own future. It is no wonder this behind-closed-doors Whitehall operation is in place.”
This is not the first time a UK Government has done extensive polling on Scottish independence using public money and refused to publish the results. Between January 2018 and May 2019, the then-Conservative UK government spent at least £264,807 hiring polling companies to research public attitudes to the Union. The government’s refusal to publish the results triggered a long-running legal battle spearheaded by former SNP MP Sheppard, founder of the The Stand comedy clubs in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Cabinet Office has been contacted for comment.
