Nicola Sturgeon Announces the Date for the Second Scottish Referendum on Independence in 2023

Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, has revealed plans for a second referendum on Scottish independence to be held in October of next year.

Following Brexit, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), declared that it was finally time to bring Scotland back into the EU as a sovereign state.

If the British government tries to prevent it, she has vowed to use the legal system to assure a vote.

The question, according to Nicola Sturgeon, will be the same as in the 2014 referendum: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”

To obtain formal approval for the vote to take place, Ms. Sturgeon wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Mr. Johnson said: “We’ll study it very carefully and respond properly. I think the focus of the country should be building a stronger economy. That’s what we’re doing. I certainly think that we’ll have a stronger economy and a stronger country together.”

The Scottish government, led by Sturgeon’s pro-independence Scottish National Party, will issue a referendum bill later establishing plans for the referendum to take place on October 19, 2023, she said on Tuesday.

“What I am not willing to do, what I will never do, is allow Scottish democracy to be a prisoner of Boris Johnson or any prime minister,” Sturgeon said at the Scottish Parliament.

 

“Scotland over generations has paid a price for not being independent. Westminster governments we don’t vote for, imposing policies we don’t support, too often holding us back from fulfilling our potential,” Sturgeon added.

About 5.5 million people in Scotland went to the polls, and they rejected independence in 2014.

However, Scotland’s semi-autonomous administration has declared that a second referendum is necessary because the Scottish people opposed the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU.