Nicola Sturgeon has warned the United Kingdom a second vote on Scottish independence is “highly likely” after Britons delivered a shock Brexit victory in the European referendum despite Scots voting overwhelmingly to remain.
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Scotland voted in favour of remaining in the European Union by 62 percent to 38 percent.
The assembled press focussed on this, referring to a future independent Scotland and the second referendum that Sturgeon said was now highly likely.
As it became clear throughout the night of the 24th June, the vote Leave camp would not be winning in Scotland, one Leave source apparently said “we’re essentially farting against thunder”, what turned out to be a very apt assessment of the final result.
She said she felt it unlikely that United Kingdom leaders would try to block the effort, saying it is “highly likely” that a new independence referendum will be held.
Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party claimed that this would be the case while Conservatives claimed that the new state would have to apply from scratch and campaigned with the argument that staying in the United Kingdom was Scotland’s guarantee to stay in the EU.
Prime minister David Cameron announced his plans for the UK’s European Union referendum a couple of months later.
“If (the Scottish) Parliament judges that a second referendum is the best or only way to protect our place in Europe it must have the option to hold one”, Sturgeon said.
England and Wales voted to Leave the European Union, while Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain.
“The 1.6 million votes cast in this (EU) referendum in favour of “remain” do not wipe away the 2 million votes that we cast less than two years ago (to stay in the UK)”, she said.
On Friday, in the wake of the United Kingdom vote to leave the EU, London-listed oil companies and contractors saw their market value fall sharply.
“Clearly they’ve misled the Scottish people”, he said.
Scottish leaders who overwhelmingly supported Britain’s membership in the European Union warned Friday of possible renewed bids for independence after British voters turned their backs on the 28-nation bloc.
Ireland has the EU’s fastest-growing economy but also more to lose from Brexit than any other member state, with far-reaching implications for its trade, economy, security of energy supplies and peace in British-ruled Northern Ireland. Sturgeon said it was “inconceivable” that Britain’s central government in London would stand in the way of a second referendum if it was the will of Scotland’s devolved parliament, which the SNP dominates. Unionists won with a 55 percent majority over the 45 percent of people voting to separate.
Responding to suggestions that the result could trigger a second independence referendum, he said now was “a time for calmness and deliberation, not pushing other personal or political agendas”.
“Our priorities are to influence the negotiations for the terms of Scotland, and the UK’s, future relationship with the EU”.
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It’s uncertain how the relationship between a non-EU Northern Ireland and the Republic will be affected – particularly concerning arrangements for the border.
