Constitutional Law

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons at 1:19 pm on 15 January 2013.

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Photo of Margaret Curran Margaret Curran Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland 1:19, 15 January 2013

I thank the right hon. and learned Gentleman—I am so pleased to have got parliamentary protocol right for once. This is one of the most disappointing elements of the debate so far. We have gone to great lengths to create a process that will allow for a fair and established result that should be observed by all participating parties. We have all said that we will respect the decision of the Scottish people, wherever we stand in this debate, and it is incumbent on the SNP to participate in that and to not always say, irrespective of the result, that it will just come back again and again with a “neverendum”, allegedly. Perhaps in today’s debate the SNP will put on record that they will absolutely respect the result of the referendum, now that we are past the starting blocks, and absolutely guarantee that they will respect the wishes of the Scottish people and not forever seek to usurp that decision, as certain comments have seemed to imply.