Sturgeon announces new Scottish independence referendum bill

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that a draft bill for a second independence referendum will be published next week.

She told the SNP’s Glasgow conference that Scotland had a right to choose a different path if it was not allowed to protects its interests “within the UK”.

“I am determined that Scotland will have the ability to consider the question of independence and to do so before the UK leaves the EU – if that is necessary to protect our country’s interests,” she said. “So, I can confirm today that the Independence Referendum Bill will be published for consultation next week.”

The first Scottish independence referendum, which took place in September 2014, resulted in 55% of voters saying “no”. However, questions about the 309-year union between England, where a majority voted to leave the EU, and Scotland, where a majority voted to remain in it, have multiplied since last June’s Brexit referendum. 

However, Scottish Secretary David Mundell urged Sturgeon to “commit to working constructively with the UK government to seize the opportunities that will bring, not taking Scotland back to the divisive constitutional debates of the past”.

“Constant talk of another independence referendum is creating uncertainty and damaging the Scottish economy at a time when our growth is lagging behind the UK as a whole,” he said.

In her speech, Sturgeon also warned that the right-wing of the ruling Tory part was seeking to “hijack” the EU referendum result and use it as a “license for xenophobia”.

She also confirmed that SNP MPs will oppose Brexit legislation when it comes before the House of Commons in 2017.

“That bill will repeal the legislation that enacted our EU membership. Scotland didn’t vote for that and so neither will our MPs,” she said. “But we will also work to persuade others – Labour, Liberals and moderate Tories – to join us in a coalition against a hard Brexit: not just for Scotland, but for the whole UK.

“The Conservative Party manifesto, on which Theresa May and all other Tory MPs were elected said this: ‘We are clear about what we want from Europe. We say: yes to the Single Market’.

“The prime minister may have a mandate to take England and Wales out of the EU but she has no mandate whatsoever to remove any part of the UK from the single market.”