Scottish Parliament backs move for new independence vote

FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2020 file photo, from left, the flags of Britain, Scotland and European Union wave outside the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. Eleven months after Britain’s formal departure from the EU, Brexit becomes a fact of daily life on Friday, Jan. 1, 2021.

Lawmakers in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Tuesday backed a motion to ask the U.K. government in London to approve the organization of a new referendum on independence.

Members of the devolved legislature, which has powers to set policy in areas such as health, education, the law, transport and environment, voted 72 to 55 in favour.

The motion was introduced by Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney, who leads the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP).

“With the mandate of parliament, I will now take that forward to dialogue with the U.K. government to make sure that parliament’s wishes, which, of course, are the wishes of the people, are properly put into effect,” he said.

Swinney said he had talks scheduled with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the next few weeks.

Scotland first held a referendum in 2014 on whether to break away from the rest of the United Kingdom -- England, Wales and Northern Ireland -- but 55 percent voted to keep the status quo.

The government in London, which retains countrywide powers over areas such as defence and foreign policy in all four nations of the U.K., considered the matter closed for a generation.

But Brexit, the U.K.’s divisive departure from the European Union under the Conservative party, reopened the debate.

Nationalist leaders pointed to the fact that Scotland voted by a majority to remain part of the bloc in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and that an SNP majority in Edinburgh constituted a mandate for going it alone.

In 2022, though, the U.K. Supreme Court confirmed that a new referendum on independence could only take place with the consent of the U.K. government.

After Tuesday’s vote, Labour leader Starmer’s Downing Street office said in a statement: “The U.K. Government does not support independence or another referendum.

“Ahead of 2014, there was agreement across all parties, across civic society in Scotland and across the Scottish and U.K. parliaments that there should be a referendum.

“There is no such consensus now.”

At the last elections for the 129-member Scottish Parliament held earlier this month, the SNP remained the biggest party, winning 58 seats but fell short of the 65 needed for a majority.

Swinney said after the vote that Scotland needed to be given independence before the next U.K. general election, expected in 2029, because of the threat that Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration, anti-EU Reform U.K. party would win.