GLASGOW: Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon vowed on Saturday to press ahead with plans for a new referendum on leaving the United Kingdom after saying there was no doubt elections to the Scottish parliament would return a pro-independence majority.

In a rebuke to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who has said he would block a secession vote, Sturgeon said it would be absurd for any politician in London to try to block a vote.

“The only people who can decide the future of Scotland are the Scottish people, and no Westminster politician can or should stand in the way of that,” Sturgeon told BBC TV.

Results on Saturday showed Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party (SNP) well on course for a fourth consecutive term in office having triumphed in 62 of the 86 seats so far declared for the 129-seat parliament. The Scottish Greens, who also support independence, were expected to win more than half a dozen seats.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2021