Calls for Yes vote legal guidance

Feb 12 2013

The campaign to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom has issued a fresh call for the SNP Government to release information about the country's legal status if it becomes independent.

The UK Government has published the opinion of two leading academics suggesting that the most likely outcome of a Yes vote in the 2014 referendum would be the creation of an entirely new state, free from the treaties and international memberships of the existing UK.

The Better Together campaign said its release has increased the pressure on the Scottish Government to release its legal advice on independence.

It comes three months after the SNP administration ended a costly court battle with the Information Commissioner to withhold the fact that it had no specific legal advice to support its previous assertions on independence and membership of international bodies such as the European Union.

Better Together campaign director Blair McDougall said: "The Scottish Government have no credibility on their legal advice.

"The only way people will believe their claims is if they too publish any opinion they have received.

"It is three months since they told us that they were now asking for a legal view that they claimed they had all along.

"Their response to the last Freedom of Information request was to block, cover up and mislead.

"We hope that, in the interests of having a transparent debate, they won't repeat their behaviour in relation to this request.

"The UK Government published their advice and the nationalists have poured over every line of it. It is only fair that the voters, experts and the media are able to examine the legal advice that underpins the nationalist argument."