Nicola Sturgeon has said the SNP has “no right” to call another independence referendum without the backing of most Scots.
Launching her party’s manifesto, the first minister said only a UK-wide vote to leave the EU or a consistent majority for separation would lead her to contemplate a second bid to break-up the UK.
Ms Sturgeon, who is seeking her first mandate to form a government, also committed to “utilising” Aberdeen in a major trauma network for Scotland.
But the opposition accused her of “weasel words” which “failed to guarantee a major trauma centre” for the city’s royal infirmary.
Ms Sturgeon, who was addressing a packed audience of party members in Edinburgh, said: “I believe with all my heart that independence is the best future for our country.
“But if there is to be a second referendum – whether that is in the next parliament or in a future parliament – we first have to earn the right to propose it.
“Setting the date for a referendum before a majority of the Scottish people have been persuaded that independence – and therefore another referendum – is the best future for our country is the wrong way round.
“So this summer, we will start new work to persuade a majority in Scotland of the case for independence.
“If we don’t succeed, we will have no right to propose another referendum.”
The SNP’s manifesto includes a commitment to “create a major trauma network to reflect our unique geography, utilising sites in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow”.
But Labour’s Aberdeen Central candidate, Lewis Macdonald, said the commitment was merely “spin” which confirmed the Granite City would merely be part of a “network” rather than have a life-saving centre of its own.
He added: “It is major trauma centre status which is needed at ARI if healthcare services in the north-east are to be protected for the future, not for one of our flagship hospitals to become merely a satellite of the central belt.
“Without major trauma centre status lives will be put at risk, NHS Grampian will find it even harder to recruit and retain medical staff and other healthcare services will be downgraded and moved elsewhere in the country.”
Aberdeen was promised a major trauma centre by the end of this year but it has yet to materialise, leading to fears the SNP may ditch the plans in favour of the central belt.
But the party’s candidate in Aberdeen Central, Kevin Stewart, said: “It is quite clear from the announcement (on trauma centres in the SNP manifesto) that the opposition were far more interested in scaremongering than putting forward their own credible plan.”
