Nicola Sturgeon has set the date for a proposed “consultative referendum” next year on Scottish independence.
To cheers and applause in the devolved parliament in Holyrood, the first minister said legislation will lay out plans for a vote to take place on 19 October 2023.
It will ask the question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
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Ms Sturgeon acknowledged that her plan could face legal blocks or resistance from the UK government – and threatened that if so her party, the SNP, would fight the next general election as a “de facto referendum” instead.
The Scottish first minister said the Holyrood government had a “clear mandate” to go for another vote – after independence was rejected in a previous poll in 2014.
She said papers were being filed with the Supreme Court to seek to establish the lawfulness of her plans and that she was “ready and willing” to negotiate with the Westminster…
