LONDON, November 23. /TASS/: The UK Supreme Court denied Scotland the power to hold a new referendum on the region’s independence, Supreme Court President Robert Reed said on Wednesday.
According to him, the judges were unanimous on the issue whether the Scottish Parliament has the power to approve a law allowing such a referendum to be held without London’s consent. "The court unanimously concludes that the proposed Bill does relate to reserved matters (the purview of the UK Parliament and not the regional Scottish Parliament - TASS). Accordingly, in the absence of any modification of the definition of reserved matters by an order in council under section 30 of the Scotland Act or otherwise, the Scottish Parliament does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence," the Supreme Court president said.
The court process was initiated by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who leads the Scottish National Party (SNP). She declared the intention to hold this referendum on October 19, 2023, but London rejected it so the SNP turned to the judicial branch.
Sturgeon said she was disappointed but would "respect" the judgment. On Twitter she wrote: "A law that doesn’t allow Scotland to choose our own future without Westminster consent exposes as myth any notion of the UK as a voluntary partnership & makes case for [independence]."
A referendum on Scotland’s independence was held in 2014. Some 55% of its participants supported the union between Edinburgh and London. However, in recent years, the SNP has been insisting on holding another vote because the UK left the European Union. In 2016, at the national referendum, Scotland’s population was against Brexit, while the UK on the whole supported it.
A public opinion poll conducted in mid-summer by Savanta ComRes showed that more than half of Scottish residents were against Sturgeon’s referendum plans. Some 53% of the respondents said that they did not support holding the referendum, 40% were for it, while the rest were undecided.
