25 June 2016•Update: 26 June 2016
LONDON
The Scottish government wants to enter into immediate discussions with the EU to protect Scotland's place within the bloc, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced Saturday.
The announcement comes following Britain's historic vote to leave the EU.
The Scottish government held an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday following the Brexit vote that triggered disquiet among Scottish voters, majority of whom voted to remain in the EU.
In televised comments following the meeting, Sturgeon expressed the Cabinet's "disappointment" with the referendum result.
“Cabinet agreed that we would seek to enter into immediate discussion with the EU institutions and with other EU member states to explore all the possible options to protect Scotland’s place in the EU," she said.
“As I said yesterday, second independent referendum is clearly an option [which] requires to be on the table and it is very much on the table,” she added.
Almost 52 percent of U.K. voters chose to leave the EU in Thursday’s referendum but Scotland voted by an even larger majority – 62 percent – to remain within the bloc.
Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness also said Friday that it was now a “democratic imperative” to hold a referendum on uniting Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.
Meanwhile, more than 1.4 million British people, dissatisfied with the referendum result, visited the official website of the British government to sign a parliamentary petition calling for a second referendum Saturday.
“We the undersigned call upon [Her Majesty’s] HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60 percent based a turnout less than 75 percent [then] there should be another referendum,” the petition read.
The turnout in the referendum was 72 percent, which is the highest voter participation recorded in a U.K. national poll in nearly 25 years
Britain held the EU referendum on Thursday to decide on the country’s future relationship with the EU.
The country voted by 52 percent as opposed to 48 percent to end its 43-year membership with the bloc.
Soon after the results became clear, Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation, saying the country needed a “strong leadership” to conduct its exit negotiations with the EU.
