The Scottish parliament cannot hold a second independence referendum without Westminster approval, the UK supreme court has ruled, in a unanimous judgment likely to anger Scottish nationalists who say the country\u2019s future is for Scottish voters to decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said immediately after the ruling: \u201cScottish democracy will not be denied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said: \u201cToday\u2019s ruling blocks one route to Scotland\u2019s voice being heard on independence \u2013 but in a democracy our voice cannot and will not be silenced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said she respected the ruling, but accused Westminster of showing \u201ccontempt\u201d for Scotland\u2019s democratic will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis ruling confirms that the notion of the UK as a voluntary partnership of nations, if it ever was a reality, is no longer a reality,\u201d she told a news conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sturgeon said her government would look to use the next general election as a \u201cde facto referendum\u201d on separating from the rest of the UK after more than 300 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said: \u201cWe must and we will find another democratic, lawful and constitutional means by which the Scottish people can express their will. In my view, that can only be an election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delivering the unequivocal judgment, the supreme court president, Lord Reed, said the Scottish parliament did not have the power to legislate for a referendum on independence because such a bill would relate to the future of the union of the UK, a matter reserved to Westminster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reed rejected arguments put by the SNP, which the court permitted to intervene in the proceedings, based on the Scottish parliament\u2019s right to self-determination under international law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that in the absence of an agreement between the two governments, as happened in advance of the 2014 vote, the Scottish parliament did not have the power to legislate for a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ruling came after an unprecedented hearing at the UK\u2019s highest court into whether Holyrood had the legal authority to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence without Westminster granting it the required powers.Supreme court: Scotland cannot hold new independence referendum without Westminster approval \u2013 video<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four consecutive prime ministers have refused Sturgeon\u2019s requests to grant her a section 30 order, the section of the 1998 Scotland Act \u2013 the legislation that established the Scottish parliament \u2013 that allows Holyrood to pass laws in areas that are normally reserved to Westminster, such as the union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The question was referred to the court by Scotland\u2019s lord advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, at Sturgeon\u2019s request after she confounded critics in June by announcing her preferred date for another referendum as 19 October 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bain argued that the referendum bill was within Holyrood\u2019s powers because the vote would merely be consultative and would not have any immediate consequences. Independence would be achieved through lengthy negotiations, as happened with Brexit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Reed said the effects of legislation \u201care not restricted to legal consequences but can include its practical consequences\u201d. The outcome of a referendum would \u201cpossess the authority \u2026 of a democratic expression of the view of the Scottish electorate\u201d and would \u201ceither strengthen or weaken the democratic legitimacy of the union\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore, Reed said, the five judges had concluded unanimously that \u201cit is clear the proposed bill has more than a loose or consequential connection with reserved matters\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sir James Eadie KC, a senior lawyer acting for the UK government, said Bain had refused to certify the draft bill as legally competent earlier this year because she \u201cdid not have the necessary degree of confidence\u201d it was lawful. The proposed legislation was \u201csolely and squarely about the union\u201d, Eadie said, and thus in breach of the Scotland Act\u2019s bar against passing legislation that dealt with the UK\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He suggested that Scottish ministers\u2019 attempts to seek a ruling were \u201cpremature\u201d and \u201ctheoretical\u201d because the referendum bill had not yet been presented to Holyrood, an argument rejected by Reed, who said the bill was within the scope of the court and further that he accepted Bain\u2019s argument that it was in the public interest that the court should provide an authoritative ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Calls for Scotland\u2019s pro-independence movement to cast aside its bitter differences and unite after the judgment were made outside the supreme court by an MP from a party that has become home to former SNP members.https:\/\/interactive.guim.co.uk\/uploader\/embed\/2022\/11\/scottish-indypolltracker\/giv-6562ejUnFveeI4Vt\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neale Hanvey, formerly an SNP MSP and sitting at Westminster for the Alba party, said the ruling was a defeat in one respect but was also a helpful clarifying point to demonstrate that \u201call avenues within the union had now been exhausted\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cNow we must unite as a movement. So we need to stop the elections charade of \u2018one more mandate, vote again for the SNP,\u2019 because the reality is there are people in the Conservative party who support independence, there are people in the Lib Dems who support independence, there are many members in the Labour party who support independence, and of course there is the Alba party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alba was formed in March 2021 by the former Scottish first minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond, and has attracted two sitting MPs from Scotland\u2019s governing party amid fissures in the independence movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we need is a constitutional convention where we put our differences to one side and prioritise Scotland. We have to find a way to come back together as we did in 2014 and settle on a strategy that is solely focused on delivering independence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, said that while it was right for the Scottish government to seek legal clarity on the question, \u201cthere is not a majority in Scotland for a referendum or independence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cThe supreme court\u2019s answer was clear and I thank them for their speedy work in this case. We must now focus on the problems facing our country, from rising bills to the crisis in our NHS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, called on the SNP to \u201cdrop their referendum obsession\u201d and respect the ruling. \u201cThe country faces enormous challenges right now. Our economy and our NHS are in crisis. We have a wave of public sector strikes \u2013 including the first teachers\u2019 strike in almost four decades. These key issues must be everyone\u2019s top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Scottish parliament cannot hold a second independence referendum without Westminster approval, the UK supreme court has ruled, in a unanimous judgment likely to anger Scottish nationalists who say the country\u2019s future is for Scottish voters to decide. The first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said immediately after the ruling: \u201cScottish democracy will not be denied.\u201d She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,8477,11941,75,7960,10000,323,13305,10484,10507,8440,11606,913,5196,911,10196,3577,2264,5563,8601,10954,7519,1828,4691,324,10342,12329,10776,4624,11743,6864,12287,278,2402,12085,8000,3570,4435,11973,1198,3805,5646,7400,5151,9037,658,3240,4690,5818,5150,1825,6741,12605,10412,7231,8033,6267,3954,10415,594],"class_list":["post-27583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-anas","tag-bill","tag-brexit","tag-case","tag-conservative","tag-conservative-party","tag-contempt","tag-convention","tag-court","tag-crisis","tag-democracy","tag-democratic","tag-economy","tag-election","tag-first-minister","tag-future","tag-government","tag-grant","tag-independence","tag-international","tag-judges","tag-labour","tag-labour-leader","tag-labour-party","tag-law","tag-laws","tag-lawyer","tag-lib-dems","tag-majority","tag-ministers","tag-movement","tag-mp","tag-mps","tag-nations","tag-negotiations","tag-nhs","tag-nicola-sturgeon","tag-one","tag-parliament","tag-president","tag-priority","tag-referendum","tag-scotland","tag-scottish","tag-scottish-parliament","tag-snp","tag-snp-leader-nicola-sturgeon","tag-strike","tag-sturgeon","tag-supreme-court","tag-teachers","tag-uk","tag-uk-government","tag-union","tag-video","tag-westminster","tag-will","tag-work","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}