Scottish leader vows British government may not prevent referendum

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) said the British government may not be able to prevent a referendum on whether Scotland should leave Britain if she is re-elected.

Sturgeon made her opinion known on Monday while speaking with the Guardian in Scotland.

Sturgeon, the country’s first minister, has been keen to hold a second referendum over whether Scotland should remain with England, Wales and Northern Ireland after Brexit.

Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain to stay in the European Union, however, as England and Wales voted to leave (and cast more votes combined).

Britain ended up leaving the bloc in January 2020 and left the single market in January 2021.

A previous referendum in September 2014 saw Scotland remain after 55 per cent voted in favour of it to.

“If people in Scotland vote for a party saying, ‘when the time is right, there should be an independence referendum’, you cannot stand in the way of that and I don’t think that is what will happen.

“People will always challenge that because of what the supposed position of the UK government is,’’ she said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who believes Scotland should remain part of Britain, has criticised the SNP’s campaigns for a referendum.

He told lawmakers in March that “the only thing that endangers investments and our working together as one UK is the reckless referendum that the SNP insists on calling at the most inapposite time possible for this country’’.