EDINBURGH: Scotland could hold an independence referendum in autumn 2018, just months before the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC.
The prospect of an independence vote in Scotland that could rip apart the United Kingdom just months before an EU exit would add a tumultuous twist to Brexit with uncertain consequences for the world’s fifth largest economy.
Scotland’s threat of a second independence vote also ups the pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May as she prepares to trigger formal exit negotiations with the other 27 members of the EU over the United Kingdom’s divorce terms.
Sturgeon said autumn 2018 would be a “common sense time” for Scotland to hold another independence referendum, once there is some outline of a deal to exit the European Union.
“Within that window, of when the outline of a UK deal becomes clear and the UK exiting the EU, I think would be common sense time for Scotland to have that choice, if that is the road we choose to go down,” Sturgeon, who heads Edinburgh’s pro-independence devolved government, told the BBC.
No decision has yet been taken on a date for a vote, she added. Under the United Kingdom’s current constitutional conventions, a second independence vote would have to be approved by May’s government which has repeatedly argued there is no need for a second ballot.
The results of the June 23 Brexit referendum called the future of the United Kingdom into question because England and Wales voted to leave the EU but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay.
Sturgeon has warned that the Brexit plans of the government in London — in particular May’s decision prioritise immigration controls over continued preferential access to the single market — makes another vote on independence necessary on the grounds that circumstances have changed since 2014, when Scots voted 55-45 to stay in the UK. — Reuters
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