Alex Salmond's preferred date for the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 has emerged as Saturday 18 October, provoking an angry reaction from his opponents who want the vote to be held sooner.
The precise date has been the focus of intense speculation since Salmond said the poll would be staged in the autumn of 2014, and was disclosed in the first Scottish edition of Rupert Murdoch's Sun on Sunday, a move that was also heavily criticised by senior political figures.
The paper quoted an unnamed Scottish government source saying that 18 October 2014 was being "lined up" as the referendum date, leading to angry questions from opposition parties about why the Scottish parliament had not been told first.
The Sun's source said it would be "the day when people will get the chance to vote for independence and equality for Scotland. The referendum will be an historic day for all Scots".
The front page story, described as a "world exclusive" about the "Day of Destiny", was followed by a short article by the first minister applauding Murdoch's decision to launch the paper.
News International declined to provide any early Sun on Sunday sales estimates, although insiders were quietly optimistic and there were rumours that the paper's print run was 4m – well above its 2.75m average daily sale.
Murdoch himself spent Sunday visiting large newsagents in central and west London to check on displays and sales levels of the paper, launched in part to replace the News of the World. He will remain in London, having promised he would stay for "several weeks" when he arrived last Friday.
The referendum date disclosure follows a long courtship of Murdoch and News International by Salmond. By the summer of 2011, Scotland's first minister had held more than 25 meetings with News International editors and executives. He has showered the tycoon with gifts and made a direct bid to win Sky coverage of a Scottish cultural festival.
Murdoch has reciprocated with openly admiring remarks. Since joining Twitter on New Year's Eve, the News Corporation owner has twice enthusiastically applauded Salmond's political skills and recently hinted strongly he favoured Scottish independence.
After hailing the Times's decision to make Salmond "Briton of the year" in late December, Murdoch said earlier this month that Salmond was "clearly the most brilliant politician in the UK". He followed that with a tweet last Monday stating: "Let Scotland go and compete. Everyone would win."
The following day, Salmond called Murdoch in London and had a private telephone conversation about the Sunday edition of the Sun, in which they also discussed Murdoch's Twitter comments.
During last May's Scottish parliament elections, the Scottish Sun openly endorsed Salmond but the Sun on Sunday defied speculation that it would mark the new Sunday edition by endorsing independence. In a carefully argued editorial, it said Salmond faced "an enormous twofold task to convince Scots to buy his vision".
Michael Moore, the UK government's Scotland secretary, and Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, said the choice of date was further evidence that Salmond was desperate to avoid holding the referendum next year because he knew he would lose if it were staged quickly.
Moore said voters would be disappointed that Salmond's staff had given the date to a newspaper first and said it followed several damaging interventions from senior business organisations, particularly the Scottish energy giant SSE, questioning the delay until late 2014.
The first minister was "stalling for time without explaining why", Moore said, adding: "The polls also show a significant majority of people want to vote earlier than 2014 and there is a clear alternative. [There] is no reason the referendum cannot happen earlier and the Scottish government must explain why they are making the people of Scotland wait so long."
The Scottish government responded by insisting on Sunday that 18 October was simply one of a number of possible dates being studied, and moved to reassure its critics by saying no decision on the final date would be made until its consultation on the referendum was complete.
But Stewart Hosie, one of the Scottish National party's election strategists and its Westminster Treasury spokesman, hinted it was a favoured day. In a BBC Scotland interview, he said: "The 18th of October is certainly in the autumn of 2014 and because it's a Saturday, not a Thursday, that's one of the areas the Scottish government are consulting on.
"But the key point is that the consultation isn't finished and I think it would be wrong for anyone to pre-empt the date that might be concluded from the consultation."It said many scare stories about the impact of independence, such as needing passports to visit England or being unable to watch Coronation Street, were unfounded.
But it went on to argue that Salmond had to explain exactly why voters should support independence and why Scotland would be better off. In a clear indication that the Sun is hedging its bets about the referendum result, it said that was "the harder bit".
In his article, Salmond also sought to downplay the damaging impact of the Leveson inquiry into hacking and newspaper ethics: "The Leveson inquiry is, rightly, looking into some of the issues that have prompted these changes. The questions the probe is looking at relate to the industry, not one newspaper or company," he said.
"Scotland's newest Sunday paper will be a fresh and vibrant edition in a nation that has an insatiable appetite for news. [The] Scottish Sun will play an important part in the great debate on our future."
Labour's Lamont said nothing was preventing the SNP from holding the referendum now. "We can't afford to wait years to make this decision," she said. "Donald Dewar held a referendum within 134 days of coming to power, but it is going to take Alex Salmond seven and a half years.
"Alex Salmond is supposed to be consulting with the Scottish people about his preferred date, but seems more interested in consulting with Rupert Murdoch."
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