The referendum standoff

Nicola Sturgeon’s bid to be granted legal power to hold another referendum on Scottish independence looked set to be endorsed this week by MSPS in Holyrood. Sturgeon wants the vote to be held in the autumn of next year or the spring of 2019. But Theresa May rejected that option last week, saying that “now is not the time”: a referendum would disrupt the UK’S twoyear exit negotiations with the EU, she said. However, the Prime Minister, who will formally notify the EU next Wednesday that the UK is quitting the union, did not rule out a Scottish independence vote at a later date, after Brexit.

May accused the SNP of using the Brexit vote as a “pretext”, saying it would be unfair to ask Scots to decide their future at a time when the situation was still in flux. But Sturgeon said obstructing a referendum would “shatter beyond repair any notion of the UK as a respectful partnership of equals”. Scotland’s future had to be decided by Scottish people, she said, rather than being “imposed on us”. Former PM Gordon Brown, meanwhile, called for Holyrood to be granted a raft of new powers after Brexit as part of a “third option”.