Scots closer to a second vote - report
BRITAIN: Scottish government workers have been told to ready themselves for a second independence referendum in a notice that says First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is set to demand the legal right to another constitutional vote, a Scottish newspaper has reported.
The Scottish government was not immediately available for comment on the report in The Courier in Dundee yesterday.
The newspaper also said British Prime Minister Theresa May believes Sturgeon could next month demand a second referendum on independence, and is privately working on a strategy to deal with this.
A spokesman for May said the British government did not believe there should be a second referendum.
Support for Scottish independence has risen since May came out last month in favour of Britain making a clean break with the European Union when it leaves the bloc, according to an opinion poll published yesterday.
The poll still showed a slim majority opposed to independence, but the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party said the fact that almost half those asked said they supported secession indicated that sentiment was shifting and could embolden calls for a new vote.
In 2014, Scots voted by roughly 55 per cent to 45 per cent to remain in the United Kingdom. But last year’s Britain-wide vote to leave the EU changed the landscape because a majority of Scots backed staying in the EU.
The pro-eu SNP, the biggest party in Scotland’s parliament, has said that there should be another independence vote if its views on Brexit are rejected. May has repeatedly said she sees no need for one.
A majority of those asked in the BMG survey – 51 per cent – still opposed independence, but that number fell by 31⁄2 points while the number supporting secession rose by the same amount, to 49 per cent.
A demand for a second independence referendum from Scotland’s devolved government would throw the UK into a constitutional crisis just as May seeks to negotiate the terms of the Brexit divorce with the EU’S 27 other members.
The SNP said the poll findings showed that Scots did not like May’s plan to quit the EU’S single market when it leaves the bloc.
Derek Mackay, a member of the Scottish parliament and business convener for the SNP, said that if May continued pursuing what her critics call a ‘‘hard’’ Brexit, ‘‘then more and more people will see independence as the option delivering certainty and stability’’.
A Scottish government source said the government was still negotiating with the UK, which was continuing in good faith.
But the source added it was ‘‘interesting to see that the UK government appears to accept the Scottish mandate to decide its own future, should that become necessary’’.
Ultimately, it is the parliament in Westminster which will make the call on whether Scotland can hold a second referendum. Last week, a British minister told nationalists to ‘‘forget’’ about another vote. – Reuters