British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, a candidate for prime minister, has said she will not allow a new referendum on Scottish independence if she is elected prime minister.
Also this week, another prime ministerial candidate, Rishi Sunak, said that now is the “worst time” for this referendum.
“Scottish Nationalists have agreed that their referendum is a once in a generation opportunity and on the one hand I will push for it,” she said in a statement to the Telegraph. “I will do my best to strengthen our entire union.” . … As Prime Minister, I will do what is necessary and right to defend our union “as I did with the Northern Ireland Protocol. I am sure that in my time there will never be a second referendum on Scottish independence.”
Earlier, Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that the date for the independence referendum had been set and that the vote would take place on October 19, 2023.
The Scottish First Minister said she was “ready and willing” to negotiate with the British government on the terms of the referendum, noting that the vote must be “legal” and that it was non-negotiable.
In her speech to Parliament, she noted that the government had a “clear mandate” to hold another vote – after abandoning independence in an earlier referendum in 2014, adding: “What I don’t want to do and what I will never do is is to let the Scottish Democracy be held captive by the Prime Minister.” Britain’s Boris Johnson or any other prime minister.”
Source: agencies