News / Foreign Policy

Scotland's future 'should not be imposed,' Sturgeon says

Tuesday, 21 March 2017 7:24 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 21 March 2017 7:33 PM ]

A handout photo made available from the Scottish Parliament on March 21, 2017, shows Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaking in the chamber on the first day of the 'Scotland's Choice' debate on a motion to seek the authority to hold an independence referendum at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. (Photo by AFP)

Scotland’s parliament is debating First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s call for a second independence referendum.

Speaking on the first day of debate on Tuesday, Sturgeon said that Scotland's future should be decided by the people who live there rather than being "imposed upon us.”

She told the parliament that staying in the UK has jeopardized Edinburgh’s place in Europe.

Sturgeon criticized the British government's decision to block the vote, calling it “wrong, unfair and utterly unsustainable."

A new vote on independence from the UK needs to be signed off by London to be legally binding. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has so far refused to grant her the powers needed to stage a legally constituted referendum.

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Sturgeon last week demanded a new referendum by early 2019 at the latest, just before the UK is expected to leave the European Union. May however said that “now is not the time” for another referendum, because all energies should be devoted to getting a good Brexit deal for the UK as a whole.

"It will simply not be acceptable for the UK government to stand as a roadblock to the democratically expressed will of this parliament," Sturgeon said on Tuesday during her speech to the Scottish parliament.

"We will allow people to make a genuinely informed choice between being taken down a hard Brexit path or becoming an independent country, able to chart our own course," she said.

She urged the MPs to give the people a democratic choice for their future in light of the significant change facing the country. Lawmakers are expected to endorse the request before Brexit is complete.

British Prime Minister Theresa May (Photo by AFP)

In a referendum held on June 23 in the UK, almost 52 percent of British voters opted to leave the EU. The Scottish people however voted by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent to remain in the bloc.

This was while in a referendum back in 2014, 55 percent of Scottish people backed staying in the UK. But according to the Scottish National Party (SNP), the political landscape has dramatically changed since then and that the former vote was based on expectations that the UK would remain in the EU.

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