Scotland's choice 'independence': First Minister

LONDON

Scotland has a choice over a path it is being dragged into with Brexit and “it is to become an independent country,” Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Tuesday.

“I want to see Scotland is given that choice with a legal, constitutional and legitimate referendum,” she said.

Speaking to foreign journalists in London, Sturgeon said Scotland did not choose Brexit in 2016.

She said they have argued since the referendum that the whole of the U.K. should remain in the European single market and customs union.

But it was obvious that the current U.K. government would not choose this path, she said.

She said that since the December election in the U.K., the government has been negotiating for a hard or even “harder” Brexit.

If the trade deal negotiations fail with the EU, the outcome will be the preferred outcome of the British government, Sturgeon claimed.

The “best outcome” in the U.K.-EU trade deal negotiations will be a “basic trade deal” described as the Canada-like option, she said.

The option would exclude tariffs and quotas but there is a “significant chance of a border” where “customs checks” would be, she explained.

She said the U.K. government is now warning businesses to be ready for customs checks in trade with the EU and the approach is a “seismic shift.”

The U.K. is expected to leave the union on the World Trade Organization terms at the end of the transition period end of the year, she added.

Sturgeon also said Scotland has reiterated the pro-European outlook since the December election and “there is very strong opposition to Brexit” in the country.

UK government rejects referendum

Britain’s government last month officially refused the local Scottish government’s request for a power transfer to hold a second independence referendum.

Publishing a letter he penned in response to the request from Sturgeon, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he could not agree to such a transfer of power, arguing that it would not be right to essentially repeat the 2014 referendum just six years later.

“You and your predecessor made a personal promise that the 2014 Referendum was a 'once in a generation' vote,” he wrote to Sturgeon.

The first referendum that asked Scottish voters whether they would want to break free from the U.K. was held in 2014, a mere two years before the historic EU referendum. The government under then-Prime Minister David Cameron pledged better understanding for Scots from Westminster and “extensive new powers” for the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish National Party (SNP), the party leading the independence campaign, had full confidence that the country would survive and even be better off outside the U.K., strengthened by the nation’s oil fields in the North Sea, world-famous malt whiskey, textile, jet engines, and various banking and financial services.

But Scots rejected separation from the rest of the U.K., as over 2 million votes (55.3%) were cast to remain part of the kingdom, while a mere 1.62 million (44.7%) voted for independence.

Johnson and the Scottish Tories have repeatedly rejected the idea of indyref2 -- as the possible vote has become known -- calling the 2014 referendum a “once in a lifetime” event that proved Scots prefer the union.

Sturgeon and her SNP have repeatedly claimed that “Scotland would not be dragged out of the EU” against their will and said a second referendum will be held in 2020.