Scotland Seeks Another Independence Referendum In 2020 To Oppose Brexit - Trade Minister

Scotland Seeks Another Independence Referendum in 2020 to Oppose Brexit - Trade Minister

Scotland is overwhelmingly opposed to Brexit and seeks another independence referendum next year to claim its rights of determining its own political future, Ivan McKee, Scotland's minister of trade, investments and innovation, told Sputnik on Monday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th November, 2019) Scotland is overwhelmingly opposed to Brexit and seeks another independence referendum next year to claim its rights of determining its own political future, Ivan McKee, Scotland's minister of trade, investments and innovation, told Sputnik on Monday.

"Scotland has the right to make its own decisions about its own future and calls on another referendum for Scottish independence which we are working towards having next year," McKee said.

According to the minister, most people in Scotland are opposed to Brexit and should take a course that would prevent its potential damage to the Scottish economy.

"Most people do not want Brexit, and if there was another referendum I am confident that Remain would win, and that is the directions we need to move in and stop that damage for Scotland's economy," McKee added.

He stressed that if Scotland were independent, it would definitely be a full member of the European Union.

In September 2014, Scotland voted by 55 percent to 45 percent to stay in the United Kingdom. In April of this year, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that his country might hold another independence referendum by the end of the current parliament's term in 2021 if Brexit is not revoked. A month later, the Scottish government published the legal framework for future referendums, including a potential independence vote "to allow the Scottish people to choose our own future rather than having a Brexit future imposed on us," in Sturgeon's words.

At the 2016 Brexit referendum, Scotland voted to remain part of the European Union. Across the United Kingdom, however, the Leave vote prevailed.