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Margaret Mitchell MSP, Conservative, Central Scotland
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Last Thursday the British people exercised their democratic right to vote in the EU referendum and in so doing opted by a majority to leave the European Union.
The target number of votes to be achieved for a majority on the night of the referendum, given the turnout of 72.2 per cent of registered voters, was 16.8 million votes.
The leave vote of 17.4million was therefore approximately 635,000 above the required number for a majority.
So whilst the SNP have been keen to cry foul and talk up the prospect of another independence referendum the fact is that the one million people in Scotland who voted in favour of the leave position played a pivotal role in securing the majority for leave across the whole of the UK.
Furthermore, the wording on the ballot paper stated:“should the UK leave/remain part of the European Union.“
Nowhere on the ballot paper did it state: “Should Scotland on its own leave/remain?” and as such, there is no mandate to claim that people in Scotland voted to keep Scotland in the EU regardless of the outcome in the rest of the UK.
Quite simply, in the 2014 referendum, a majority of people in Scotland voted to remain as part of the UK.
The 1.6 million votes cast in Scotland in the EU referendum in favour of remain do not overturn the two million votes in support of Scotland remaining part of the UK less than two years ago and there is, therefore, no basis for an unwanted second referendum.
We are where we are and instead of indulging in another five years of constitutional wrangling, it is now up to the First Minister to behave in a statesmanlike fashion and work together with the Westminster, Scottish, Northern Irish andwelsh governments, in an effort to secure the best possible withdrawal settlement and way forward, which is in the best interests of citizens in every part of the UK and which makes the most of the new opportunities presented.