Scottish campaigners call on Boris to block separatist referendum plans
Scottish campaigners demanded Boris Johnson reject calls for a second independence referendum north of the border.
Scotland Matters, a pro-union group, drove an advertising van around Westminster yesterday arguing that despite the SNP’s victory in last week’s Scottish elections, there is no mandate for the referendum the party demands.
One message displayed pointed out that only 1.3m of Scotland’s 4.3m people voted for the SNP.
A spokesman for the group said: “Only a week ago polls were predicting a landslide for the SNP, and despite Nicola Sturgeon spinning the result this way, they failed to get an overall majority and are sustained in power by the Scottish Greens, a party whose manifesto trumpeted an accelerated shut down of our oil and gas industry, the very backbone of the SNP’s 2014 referendum campaign.”
Numerous figures in Westminster have begun talking openly about the possibility of another referendum in Scotland in the coming years.
The previous referendum in 2014 was called a “once in a generation” poll by both unionist and nationalist sides.
But the SNP’s leader Nicola Sturgeon has claimed the departure of the UK from the EU means a second vote is required.