Sturgeon to seek second indpendence vote for Scotland

The First Minister banked her career on Scottish people feeling so infuriated by Brexit that they will be willing to embark on the risky step of quitting the United Kingdom.

Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed she will ask for permission to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence.

Sturgeon’s gambit has no guarantee of success, though.

A few years after the last referendum, Scots may be given the choice to vote again about whether it should remain a part of the UK. Sturgeon and her supporters previously fought to secure certain European Union post-Brexit privileges, however, such negotiations have not yet been formalized through the EU. “Another such referendum would split society and would cause enormous economic uncertainty at the worst possible moment”.

Calling for continued access to the single market, she said: “Any failure by the UK Government to recognise Scotland’s interests could lead to the end of the UK as a state”.

The proposed independence referendum would be held some time between late 2018 and early 2019 – once the terms of Brexit were clear, but before Britain’s departure from the European Union took place.

Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit movement, tweeted “Nicola Sturgeon would lose a second independence referendum big time”.

That could cost Scotland up to 80,000 jobs and a £2,000 fall in annual wages per person after ten years.

A “clear majority” of Scots are against another referendum on independence before the Brexit negotiations are over, while about another four in ten Scots support another vote on independence, a BMG survey for The Herald has found. And Scotland’s leaders are turning the Brexiteers’ own words against them to justify a new independence vote.

Jeremy Corbyn has sought to clarify his position on a second Scottish independence referendum, saying Westminster should not block it going ahead but that a breakaway would be “catastrophic”.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is getting closer to invoking Article 50 to trigger negotiations for Britain’s exit from the EU as the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill comes up for its final vote.

Sturgeon’s proposed referendum would coincide with the dates when the first clear indications of what a Brexited Britain will look like are likely to appear.