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London
CNN
–
Britain’s highest court has ruled that the Scottish government cannot unilaterally hold another referendum on whether to secede from the United Kingdom, dealing a blow to independence campaigners that will be welcomed by Westminster’s pro-union establishment.
The court unanimously rejected an attempt by the Scottish National Party (SNP) to force a vote next October, as it did not have the approval of Britain’s parliament.
But the decision is unlikely to stop the heated debate over independence that has dominated British politics for a decade.
Scotland last voted on the issue with Westminster approval in 2014, when voters rejected the prospect of independence by 55% to 45%.
The pro-independence SNP nevertheless dominated politics north of the border in the intervening years, at the expense of traditional, pro-union groups. Successive SNP leaders have promised to give Scottish voters a second chance to vote, especially after the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016.
A recent push by SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon involved holding an advisory referendum later next year, which, like the 2016 vote, resulted in Brexit. But the country’s highest court agreed that even a non-legally binding vote would require oversight from Westminster, given its practical implications.
“A lawfully held referendum would have important political consequences in relation to the Union and the United Kingdom Parliament,” Lord Reid said, reading the court’s judgment.
“It will either strengthen or weaken the democratic legitimacy of the Union and the sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament over Scotland, depending on which view prevails, and will either support or undermine the democratic identity of the independence movement,” he said.
Sturgeon said she accepted Wednesday’s ruling, but tried to frame the decision as another pillar in the argument for secession. “A law that does not allow Scotland to choose our own future without the consent of Westminster exposes any notion of the UK as a voluntary partnership as a myth and makes (a) case for independence,” she wrote on Twitter.
She accused the British government of a “complete rejection of democracy” in a speech to reporters on Wednesday.
Sturgeon said her next step in her bid to win the vote would be the next British general election – a proxy referendum in Scotland – scheduled for January 2025, to take the course.
But UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak heralded the court’s “clear and definitive ruling” as an opportunity to move on from the independence debate. “The people of Scotland want us to work collectively to fix the big challenges we face, whether that’s the economy, supporting the NHS or indeed supporting Ukraine,” he told parliament.
Opinion polls suggest that Scots remain narrowly divided over whether to secede from the UK, and a clear consensus in either direction has yet to emerge.
England and Scotland have been in a political union since 1707, but many Scots have long viewed the relationship as one-sided, dominated by England. Scottish voters have historically rejected the ruling Conservative Party at the ballot box and voted heavily against Brexit — but in vain — intensifying arguments over the issue over the past decade.
Since 1999, Scotland has had devolved government, meaning many, but not all, decisions are made in the SNP-led Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh.
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