Alex Salmond has insisted his plans for an independence vote in the autumn of 2014 are legal - despite Westminster saying his Scottish government does not have the power to stage such a ballot.
The Scottish first minister announced his preferred date last night for a vote on whether or not the country should remain part of the UK.
That came just over an hour after Scottish secretary Michael Moore offered to temporarily extend Holyrood’s powers so it could hold an independence ballot - if certain conditions are met.
The two administrations now appear to be on a collision course over the staging of a vote on Scotland’s future.
When he announced his plans to the Commons yesterday, Mr Moore said: “To legislate for a referendum on independence, the Scottish parliament must have the legal power to do so. It is the government’s clear view that the Scottish parliament doesn’t have that legal power.”
But when asked today if his plans were legal, Mr Salmond said: “Yes, we believe so.”
He accused Westminster of trying to interfere in Scottish affairs, and said the prime minister should “butt out”.
The coalition government has proposed using a Section 30 order to temporarily extend Holyrood’s powers, enabling it to deliver a referendum.
The Scottish National Party leader told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme he had "no objection" to this, but added: "The objection, of course, is that the prime minister has started to put all sorts of London-based strings on."
Mr Salmond said there was “plenty of legal authority” to support Scottish government proposals to stage its own ballot.
The Scottish secretary refused to say today if the UK government would mount a legal challenge to any referendum staged by the SNP administration, but he said that the nationalists’ plans “run the risk somewhere along the line of legal challenges”.
Mr Salmond hit out at UK ministers and said: “The prime minister came in with his size 10 boots and started to put all sorts of strings and conditions, and basically wanted to pull the strings of Scotland’s referendum.”
He said there had been a “huge a dverse reaction” north of the border to “the Thatcheresque idea that Downing Street knows best”.
The first minister continued: “Our conditions are quite clear: this must be a referendum built and run in Scotland, accountable to the Scottish parliament. It has to be run fairly and transparently, of course, but we won’t accept unreasonable conditions placed by London on how Scotland should run the poll.”
The order proposed by Westminster would require any referendum to take place under the oversight of the electoral commission, with a single ballot paper offering voters the choice between independence or remaining part of the UK.
Those registered to vote in Scottish parliamentary elections would be entitled to take part.
But the SNP has previously suggested an independence referendum could be opened up to those aged 16 and 17, with Mr Salmond saying today: “If you’re having a vote on Scotland’s future, 16 and 17-year-olds on the electoral roll have a stake in the future of the country.”
PA