Scotland Plays Down Independence Bid as Brexit Looms
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday is expected to voice support for a second referendum on Brexit but play down the prospects for a new vote on independence.
Ahead of giving the keynote speech at her Scottish National Party's annual conference, Sturgeon has said she thinks SNP MPs will support any proposal for a vote on EU membership.
Sturgeon has previously refused to back a "People's Vote", arguing that Scotland already voted against Brexit in the 2016 referendum whereas Britain as a whole voted in favor.
Sturgeon has pledged to outline her plans for another independence referendum "when the terms of Brexit become clear", but with negotiations between London and Brussels still in deadlock the timetable is being pushed back.
The SNP had hoped to stage another independence referendum before Britain leaves the EU on March 29 2019, but the talk now is of holding one by 2021 when the current terms of the SNP Scottish government expires.
Scotland held an independence referendum in 2014 in which 55 percent voted against breaking away from the rest of the United Kingdom but Sturgeon has argued that the Brexit referendum strengthens the case for a re-run of the vote.
Grassroots delegates vented their frustration about the lack of progress towards independence at a packed fringe meeting on Monday.
Heather Anderson, a Scottish Borders councilor, received widespread applause when she voiced frustration "that we're not able to get out and campaign for an independent Scotland in Europe."
"Time is slipping away," she said.
Scotland's chief Brexit official Mike Russell said: "We can't have a second referendum in which we don’t win that referendum, that would be the wrong thing to do."
Ian Blackford, the leader of SNP MPs in the British parliament, pointed to polls showing rising support for independence and said this would only grow in case of a hard Brexit.
Blackford led a walkout of SNP lawmakers from the House of Commons in June amid claims the parliament was trying to diminish Scottish powers after Brexit, and he has pledged to launch more disruptive tactics in the months ahead.
"The SNP Scottish government has a mandate from the people of Scotland that in a material change in circumstances -- as Brexit is -- we have that option of calling a second independence referendum on Scotland's constitutional position," he told AFP.
Source: Agence France Presse
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