Sturgeon Wants 2nd Scottish Independence Referendum in Next Parliament

SCOTLAND’s First Minister has said she wants a second independence referendum in the ‘earlier part’ of the next Scottish parliament.

Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC that if the Scottish National Party (SNP) receive a majority vote, they will have a mandate to demand a second independence referendum. ‘If people in Scotland vote for a referendum, there will be a referendum’ she said, her comments coming ahead of the SNP’s party conference on the weekend. Scottish parliamentary elections are scheduled for May.

Westminster is reluctant to offer Scottish voters a second independence referendum, saying that the 2014 vote to remain in the UK was a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity. At the time 55% of Scots voted against independence, though recent polls have suggested that these margins may have since narrowed due to Brexit and the perceived failure of Boris Johnson’s government during the pandemic. The Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, said that independence was ‘the last thing Scotland needs.’

Sturgeon also said that, while she has been a ‘lifelong believer, campaigner, and advocate for independence’, during the current Covid-19 crisis ‘my responsibility is to the health and wellbeing of the country and trying to steer it through a pandemic’. 

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