UK PM can’t keep Scotland in union against will: Sturgeon
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, yesterday warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson that he could not keep Scotland in the United Kingdom against the country’s will.
Johnson and his government have repeatedly said they will not give the go ahead for another referendum on Scottish independence, but Sturgeon said after the Scottish National Party won 48 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the UK parliament, her party had been given a mandate for one.
“If he thinks ... saying no is the end of the matter then he is going to find himself completely and utterly wrong,” Sturgeon told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
“You cannot hold Scotland in the union against its will ... If the United Kingdom is to continue it can only be by consent. And if Boris Johnson is confident in the case for the union then he should be confident enough to make that case and allow people to decide.”
On Saturday, Sturgeon urged that the British PM to “focus on reality” and recognise that the Scottish National Party (SNP) has been given a mandate for a second independence referendum.
However, Johnson, boosted by his own Conservative Party winning an 80 seat parliamentary majority in the election, told Sturgeon by phone on Friday that he opposed another independence vote.
Scots voted in an independence referendum in 2014 to remain in the United Kingdom, but they also voted in the 2016 Brexit referendum to stay in the European Union, while a majority of English and Welsh voters supported leaving the bloc.
Since then Sturgeon has argued that Scotland deserves another vote on becoming an independent nation because it is being taken out of the EU against its will.
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