UK vote ‘reinforces’ case for Scottish independence poll: Sturgeon

Scottish National Party leader Nicolas Sturgeon said Friday her party’s strong performance in Britain’s snap election reinforced her case for holding a fresh Scottish independence referendum.

“The stunning election win from last night for the SNP renews, reinforces and strengthens the mandate we have from previous elections to offer the people of Scotland a choice over their future,” she said after the SNP picked up 48 out of Scotland’s 59 seats contested in Britain’s election Thursday.

The first Scotland independence referendum failed in 2014 when 55 percent voted in favour of preserving its membership in the United Kingdom.

But Scotland opposed Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union in the 2016 referendum, which looks almost certain after the win for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives.

Sturgeon said Thursday’s outcome gave Johnson a mandate to take England out of the European Union, but not Scotland.

“Given the verdict of the people of Scotland last night, the Scottish government will next week offer a detailed, democratic case for a transfer of power to enable a referendum,” she said.

On the streets of Glasgow, the mood was combative.

“We need to get away from them, we have to absolutely get away from them,” Katrina McKaylor, a bank worker in her 40s, told AFP.

“They don’t even think like us, they are just totally different people and I don’t want to be part of that.”