A day ahead of UK PM Theresa May's timeline for submitting Article 50 and beginning formal Brexiut procedures, Scottish parliament just voted 69 to 59 in facor of a second Scottish independence referendum. While somewhat expected, cable is lagging on the news...
As AP reports, Scottish lawmakers have voted to seek a new referendum on independence, to be held within the next two years.
The Scottish parliament voted 69-59 to back First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's call to ask the British government for an independence vote.
Sturgeon says Scots must be given the chance to vote on their future before Britain leaves the European Union. British Prime Minister Theresa May plans to launch the U.K's two-year process to exit the EU on Wednesday by triggering Article 50 of the bloc's key treaty.
"Scotland's future should be in Scotland's hands," Sturgeon told lawmakers in the Edinburgh-based parliament.
Scottish voters rejected independence in a 2014 referendum that Sturgeon's Scottish National Party called a once-in-a-generation vote. But Sturgeon says Brexit has changed the situation dramatically.
She says there should be a new vote on independence between fall 2018 and spring 2019, when details of Britain's divorce terms with the bloc are clear.
Notably, May, whose government must approve the referendum for it to be legally binding, says the time is not right. She says all parts of the U.K. — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — must pull together to get the best-possible deal with the EU.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson agreed, saying Tuesday that Scots do not want "the division and rancor of another referendum campaign." It's unclear what could break the stalemate between Edinburgh and London.
Nicola Sturgeon's full statement following the passage of the vote is below.
Full @NicolaSturgeon statement following Holyrood vote pic.twitter.com/nyNELIXWJb
— Nick Eardley (@nickeardleybbc) March 28, 2017