Scotland’s Leader Warns Johnson He ‘Can’t Deny Democracy’

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa)- Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon vowed to maintain pressure on the U.K. for another referendum on independence and said the standoff with Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the issue is just a “phony battle.”

In an interview with Bloomberg Television in Brussels on Monday, she also repeated the possibility of asking the courts to decide whether the Scottish Parliament already has the power to hold a consultative vote. That, though, is not the preferred option, she said.

“The prime minister ultimately cannot deny democracy,” Sturgeon said. “You cannot stand in the way of the right of the people of any country to choose their own future.”

Sturgeon is stepping up calls for Scotland to decide its own path after the U.K. finally left the European Union on Jan. 31. But Johnson is refusing to sanction a vote, arguing that the 2014 referendum — when Scots voted 55% to 45% to remain in the U.K. — was a once-in-a-generation event. Sturgeon says Brexit changes that, especially as Johnson’s government is pursuing a more decisive break from the EU in trade talks this year.

The narrative in Scotland is that the country of 5.4 million people is the last bastion of opposition to Johnson and his version of Brexit. Sturgeon calls Brexit an “affront to democracy” because Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU in 2016.

The British government’s policy “seems to be a choice between a hard Brexit or an even harder Brexit,” Sturgeon said. “That is not in the interest of the U.K. or Scotland.”

‘Huge Unnecessary Burdens’
The Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation said on Monday that the U.K.’s Brexit deal looks set to create “huge unnecessary burdens” on the industry. Salmon is Britain’s biggest food and drink export after whisky, whose producers have largely been opposed to Brexit.

Sturgeon has been pushing for the U.K. to allow an independence vote this year. In reality, she will head into Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2021 with the aim of reinforcing her mandate. In December’s U.K. election, which handed Johnson the power to push through Brexit, the SNP won 48 of Scotland’s 59 districts on a platform of demanding a fresh decision on independence.

While two polls this year have shown a wafer-thin majority in favor of independence, most surveys in recent years have shown a fresh vote could go either way.

Ultimately, a second referendum will be “mutually agreed” with the government in Westminster, Sturgeon predicted. What Scotland can’t risk, she said, is to go down the route of Catalonia, which held a vote that was ruled as illegal and not internationally recognized.

Source: Bloomberg Business News