EDINBURGH: Scotland’s nationalist leader warned on Tuesday that it would be “unfair” for the British government to block another independence referendum, as she asked the Scottish parliament to support her plans for a vote.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said British Prime Minister Theresa May must not to stand in her way — as she opened a two-day debate on a referendum rematch.

May has insisted “now is not the time” for another referendum, while the terms of Brexit have yet to be negotiated.

But Sturgeon told Scottish lawmakers: “For the UK Government to stand in the way of Scotland even having a choice would be, in my view, wrong, unfair and utterly unsustainable.” The Scottish parliament is expected endorse Sturgeon’s call for a second referendum in a vote on Wednesday, less than three years after Scots rejected independence in a 2014 referendum.

Sturgeon suggested a re-run could be as little as 18 months away, and by spring 2019 at the latest, before Britain has left the European Union.

Scotland voted strongly to stay in the European Union, as did Northern Ireland, but they were outweighed by England and Wales and the national result last year was 52 per cent for Brexit.

“We will allow people to make a genuinely informed choice between being taken down a hard Brexit path or becoming an independent country, able to chart our own course,” she said.

Sturgeon insists she is open to discussion on an alternative timetable “within reason”, but said “it will simply not

be acceptable for the UK government to stand as a roadblock to the democratically expressed will of this Parliament”.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2017