If the Scottish National Party wins the most seats in Scotland at the 8 June general election, Prime Minister Theresa May's refusal to agree to a second independence referendum will be unsustainable, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday (28 May).
But, in an earlier interview, Ms Sturgeon said she did not think Labour's leader was "credible as an alternative prime minister".
The manifesto said an SNP win would "complete a triple lock" on a referendum.
The Conservatives say another ballot can not take place until after Brexit and only if there is public consent for a vote.
The Scottish National Party set out its opposition to further spending cuts by the United Kingdom government and reinforced its pledge to challenge Prime Minister Theresa May's aim to leave the European Union's single market and hold another independence referendum.
Ms Sturgeon has previously stated that another vote should be held between autumn next year and spring 2019, but the manifesto does not repeat this target. So I've taken her at her word. "If that changes then of course we will have to change our timing in light of that".
Scotland should have a choice about our future at the end of the Brexit process.
Sources close to the First Minister later insisted there was no shift in policy or any desire to kick the referendum into the long grass. It appears that they want to wait until after the General Election, meaning that there is no political leadership in the capital yet.
She also vowed to do everything she can to keep Scotland in the European Union if she manages to gain independence.
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On Monday May was forced to backtrack on one of her Conservative Party's most high-profile election pledges to force elderly people to pay more for their social care after her opinion poll lead halved.
"Now is not the time because what we need to be doing now as we face this historical moment as we need to get the Brexit negotiations right, what we need to do is to be working together and not pulling apart".
However she twice failed to explain how, in practice, she could overcome resistance by a determined Mrs May.
"Only the SNP can provide the strong opposition that Scotland needs to protect our schools, hospitals and vital public services from deeper Tory cuts and further damaging austerity", Sturgeon said in the central Scottish city of Perth on Tuesday.
"We can not find ourselves in a position where we have no alternative but to accept a damaging Brexit that is wreaking havoc on our economy and our public services".
"This was a exhausted manifesto launch by a First Minister who has failed in this campaign to give people a single, positive reason for voting for her party".
She said: "These cuts strike at the very heart of how we see ourselves as a nation and our shared ambition for the future".
She branded Labour plans to raise taxes on the richest as "reckless" but warned that a vote for the Tories was "a vote for more cuts".
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