Sturgeon calls for Scottish independence referendum

EDINBURGH: Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday demanded a new Scottish independence referendum to be held in late 2018 or early 2019, once the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union have become clear.

“If Scotland is to have a real choice — when the terms of Brexit are known but before it is too late to choose our own course — then that choice must be offered between the autumn of next year, 2018, and the spring of 2019,” Ms Sturgeon, who heads Scotland’s pro-independence devolved government, told reporters.

The prospect of an independence vote in Scotland that could rip apart the United Kingdom just months before an EU exit would add a tumultuous twist to Brexit with uncertain consequences for the world’s fifth-largest economy.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to launch the two-year process of taking the country out of the EU, something which was opposed by most Scots in last year’s Brexit vote.

Ms Sturgeon has called for Scotland to be allowed to strike its own deal with the EU but yesterday she said her efforts had hit a “brick wall” in London.

The results of the June 23 Brexit referendum called the future of the UK into question because England and Wales voted to leave the EU but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay.

Sterling rose after Ms Sturgeon said the earliest date for a new Scottish independence referendum was in the autumn of next year.

Scots rejected independence by 55-45% in a referendum in September 2014, although the vote energised Scottish politics and support for Ms Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party (SNP) has surged since then.

Ms Sturgeon said she wanted a vote to be held between the autumn of 2018 and the spring of the following year.

The Scottish first minister said the move was needed to protect Scottish interests in the wake of the UK voting to leave the EU. She said she would ask the Scottish Parliament next week to request a Section 30 order from Westminster. The order would be needed to allow a fresh legally-binding referendum on independence to be held.

Prime Minister Theresa May has so far avoided saying whether or not she would grant permission.

But Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson tweeted that Ms Sturgeon had “chosen the path of further division and uncertainty” and said her party would vote against the request for a Section 30 order.

Speaking at her official Bute House residence in Edinburgh, Ms Sturgeon said the people of Scotland must be offered a choice between a “hard Brexit” and becoming an independent country. The Scottish government has published proposals which it says would allow Scotland to remain a member of the European single market even if the rest of the UK leaves, which Ms May has said it will.