Scotland asks for second independence vote on Brexit
LONDON—Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon formally asked British Prime Minister Theresa May Friday for the start of discussions on a second referendum for Scottish independence.
Sturgeon sent the request by letter to May, arguing that the referendum is needed in late 2018 or early 2019 because “the UK government has decided to remove Scotland not just from the European Union, but from the single market as well.”
“That’s clearly against the will of the majority of people who live here and it will make us, in the words of the UK government itself, permanently poorer,” she said in a video statement issued by the devolved Scottish government.
Brexit will have “enormous implications” for health care, education, jobs and investment in Scotland, said Sturgeon, who leads the Scottish National Party.
“The next two years are hugely important for Scotland because they will determine the kind of country we’ll become,” she said.
In the last referendum, in 2014, 55 percent voted against independence.
May has said a second referendum would be “divisive and cause huge economic uncertainty at the worst possible time.”
She is expected to seek to delay the process and persuade the SNP to conduct a referendum after Britain completes the Brexit process, which is currently expected by March 2019.
Her office confirmed that it had received Sturgeon’s letter on Friday, but made no immediate comment.
Sturgeon complained that her efforts to seek a compromise on the terms of Brexit and the timing of an independence referendum were met with intransigence from May’s Conservative government.
She accused May of intending “to ignore the will of the Scottish parliament and seek to prevent people in Scotland having that choice.”
“If the Westminster (London) government continues to hold that line, it will go against the very foundations of devolution,” Sturgeon said.
“So, I hope the prime minister changes her mind and acknowledges that the people of Scotland are entitled to a choice at a time and in a way that is right for Scotland.”
Scotland’s devolved parliament on Tuesday voted to support Sturgeon’s plan for a second referendum.
If May refuses to relent, Sturgeon plans to “come back to the Scottish parliament in a few weeks’ time with an update on how we’re going to move forward … while there is still time to take a different path.”
May triggered formal talks on Wednesday Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, beginning two years of Brexit negotiations.
Her letter to the EU did not mention any special Brexit terms for Scotland.
“Far from securing a UK-wide approach ahead of invoking Article 50—as you committed to do last July—the voices of the devolved administrations were largely ignored and all attempts at compromise rejected, in most cases with no prior consultation,” Sturgeon’s letter to May said.
More than 60 per cent of voters in Scotland opted to stay in the EU in the Brexit referendum, while 52 percent voted for Brexit across Britain and Northern Ireland.