Can Scotland hold another referendum on independence without UK consent? Independence Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already unveiled the issue, “Should Scotland be an independent country? », and even the date, October 19, 2023, on which it intended to organize this new consultation. It remained to be seen whether this ballot, which London is opposed to, would be legal.
The British Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday 23 November by ruling that any new independence referendum, launched without the agreement of the British government, would be illegal.
Explaining his verdict, the President of the Supreme Court, Robert Reed, explained that the judges had unanimously concluded that such a vote would have consequences for the union of the United Kingdom and therefore required an agreement from the central government to London.
A debate revived by Brexit
The Scots have already refused to 55% in 2014 to leave the United Kingdom. But, in the eyes of the independentists of the Scottish National Party (SNP), in power in Edinburgh, Brexit, which 62% of voters in the province opposed, which has since occurred, has changed the situation. They want Scotland to rejoin the European Union as an independent state.
But the central government in London strongly opposes any further independence referendums and sees the 2014 vote as closing the debate for a generation.
Anticipating a legal tussle with the government in London, Nicola Sturgeon had therefore taken the lead in seizing the Supreme Court, so that it could determine whether the Scottish Parliament had the power to legislate on the question without the agreement of the British government. . The separatist leader believes in particular that she has a “indisputable mandate” to organize such a vote.
Anticipating a refusal by the Supreme Court, Nicola Sturgeon has already warned that she will make the next general election in the United Kingdom, which must be held by January 2025, a de facto referendum on the question of independence. During the 2021 local elections, she had promised to organize a legally valid referendum once the page of the Covid-19 pandemic was turned.