LONDON – Scotland’s leader said Monday that she hopes to hold an independence referendum as soon as next year, setting up a political showdown with a U.K.
government that refuses to countenance another secession vote.First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would campaign in the May 2021 Scottish Parliament election for a mandate to hold a vote on independence “in the early part of the new parliament,” which will run from 2021 to 2025.In a speech to a conference of her Scottish National Party — held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic — Sturgeon said Scotland had a right to choose independence, “if a majority of us want it.”“That inalienable right of self-determination cannot, and will not, be subject to a Westminster veto,” she.