Scottish Parliament supports Sturgeon’s push for new referendum

Scottish First Prime Minister, Nicola SturgeonScottish lawmakers are resolute about voting for an independence referendum Tuesday, a decision which can put Edinburgh on a collision course with the United Kingdom government. Hopefully, the vote by the Scottish Parliament would allow for a permission to the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to demand of the UK Parliament for a referendum within autumn 2018 and spring 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May has declared that she will reject Sturgeon’s plan. Processes are underway for Britain to leave the European Union in 2019, and May has noted that it is not time for any vote that can break up the break up the UK. Sturgeon has, however, said there is an “unquestionable democratic mandate” for a referendum. Unlike 2014 when a failed referendum on independence was held, Scotland voted 55% to 45% to be part of the UK. On the contrary, Sturgeon led the Scottish National Party to declare a change now that Britain has decided to leave the EU. Sturgeon maintained that Brexit vote is foisting on Scotland a decision to pull out of the bloc as against its will to remain as demonstrated in an earlier vote in June which had 62 percent of Scots in support of remaining in the EU. Sturgeon said at the opening of the referendum debate in the Edinburgh Parliament last week that it would be “wrong, unfair and utterly unsustainable” for the UK government to reject her demand. The two Scottish Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats have been in stern opposition to a new referendum. Scottish National Party, the largest party in the Parliament, will have the backing of the Green Party, supporting Sturgeon to put more pressure on May.  Sturgeon and May met Monday in Glasgow prior to the UK government’s plans to consider Article 50 which is the formal announcement of a separation from the EU. Sturgeon was reported by the UK Press Association as saying that May had made clear the terms of the UK’s divorce from the EU, the details of which has a new free trade agreement to be revealed within two years. “I think it makes it very difficult for the Prime Minister to maintain a rational opposition to a referendum in the time scale I have set out,” Sturgeon stated.