Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon wants to hold an independence referendum right after the general election. Scotland will return to the EU, she said.
If the Scottish National Party (SNP) wins the general election, Executive Nicola Sturgeon expects to hold a second autonomy choice at the earliest opportunity. “Next May we will ask you, the people of Scotland, to place your trust in us so that we can continue this task of building a better country,” she said at the SNP’s annual virtual party conference. Scotland has the right to choose independence “if a majority of us want it”.
In the first referendum in 2014, 55 percent of the Scots voted to remain in Great Britain. Because of Brexit, however, according to the SNP, a new vote is necessary. In the British referendum on leaving the EU in 2016, a majority of the Scottish population voted in favour of remaining in the EU. Most recently, opinion polls showed that Scots support for independence from Great Britain rose to a record high.

Sturgeon also turned to the EU at the party congress. “You are part of what we are – and always will be. You are not far from us,” she said in the direction of the remaining EU member states. “To those who have come from other countries to live in ours, thank you for that – please stay.” According to Sturgeon, Scotland wants to return to the EU as an independent member state soon.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson firmly rejects another vote. “The Scots voted on it, and they voted to remain part of the UK,” said Johnson’s spokesman Jamie Davies. Under UK law, the regional government in Scotland must also ask the central government for permission to hold a referendum. Sturgeon had already announced that it would also file a lawsuit against this regulation if necessary.