Scottish vote sets up new independence showdown
Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to restart the push for a second referendum on Scottish independence, after her Scottish National Party made gains in the British local government elections.
The Scottish first minister said she would once again demand another constitutional vote, as her party was poised for a huge win in the election for the Scottish parliament at Holyrood.
Sturgeon played down the likelihood of an SNP majority at Holyrood, however, saying it had ‘‘always been a very, very long shot’’.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said beforehand that he would reject calls for another referendum if the SNP secured a majority.
‘‘A referendum in the current context is irresponsible and reckless,’’ Johnson told The Daily Telegraph.‘‘I don’t think this is anything like the time to have more constitutional wrangling, to be talking about ripping our country apart, when actually people want to heal our economy and bounce forward together.’’
Sturgeon was comfortably reelected to represent Glasgow
Southside. ‘‘I pledge to get back to work immediately to continue to steer the country through the crisis of Covid, to continue to lead this country into recovery,’’ she said in her victory speech. ‘‘And then, when the time is right, to offer this country the choice of a better future.’’
Britain’s governing Conservative Party made big inroads in the
north of England in the elections, winning a special vote in the postindustrial town of Hartlepool for a parliamentary seat that the main opposition Labour Party had held since 1974.
The Conservatives extended their grip on parts of England that had been Labour strongholds for decades, if not a century. Many of the seats that flipped from red to blue voted heavily in 2016 for Britain’s departure from the European Union.
In the 2019 general election, the Conservatives made big inroads into Labour’s ‘‘red wall’’ in northern England on a combination of factors, notably Johnson’s insistence that he would deliver Brexit after years of parliamentary haggling. The recent success of Britain’s coronavirus vaccine rollout also appears to have given the Conservatives a shot in the arm.
Hopes had been high that new leader Keir Starmer would help Labour reconnect with its lost voters in the north of England when he took the helm a little more than a year ago, succeeding the more left-wing Jeremy Corbyn, who in 2019 led the party to its worst election performance since 1935.
Scotland has been part of the United Kingdom since 1707, and the issue of Scottish independence appeared settled when voters rejected secession by 55 per cent to 45 per cent in a 2014 referendum.
However, Britain’s decision in 2016 to leave the EU ran against the wishes of most Scots, giving the nationalist cause fresh legs.