Scottish politicians back UK quit poll

EDINBURGH // Members of the Scottish parliament voted yesterday to seek a new referendum on independence, to be held within the next two years.

The Edinburgh legislature voted 69-59 to back first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s call to ask the UK government for an independence vote.

Outside, several dozen independence supporters broke into cheers and tears of joy as the news broke.

Ms Sturgeon said Scots must be given the chance to vote on their future before Britain leaves the EU.

Britain as a whole voted to leave the bloc in a referendum last year, but Scots voted by a large margin to stay.

“Scotland’s future should be in Scotland’s hands,” said Ms Sturgeon.

Scottish voters rejected independence in a 2014 referendum that her Scottish National Party called a once-in-a-generation vote.

But the Scottish first minister said Brexit changed the situation dramatically.

She said there should be a new vote on independence between autumn next year and spring in 2019, when details of Britain’s divorce terms with the bloc are clear.

Ms Sturgeon said that whatever the final terms, Brexit would mean significant and profound change for Scotland.

“That change should not be imposed upon us,” she said.

UK prime minister Theresa May said the timing was not right. She said England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland must pull together during exit deals with the EU.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson agreed, saying yesterday that Scots did not want “the division and rancour of another referendum”.

Ms Sturgeon’s referendum call was backed by governing Scottish nationalists and the Greens and opposed by the Conservative and Labour parties. It was unclear what could break the stalemate between Edinburgh and London.

British officials said they would not agree to another independence referendum until the UK’s EU exit is over and done with .

“It’s not appropriate to have a referendum while people do not know what the future holds for the UK and EU,” said David Mundell, the British government’s Scotland minister.