Scotland leader warns Johnson he ‘can’t deny democracy’

Bloomberg

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon vowed to maintain pressure on the UK for another referendum on independence and said the standoff with PM Boris Johnson over the issue is just a “phony battle.”
In an interview with Bloomberg Television in Brussels on Monday, she also repeated the possibility of asking the courts to decide whether the Scottish Parliament already has the power to hold a consultative vote. That, though, is not the preferred option, she said.
“The prime minister ultimately cannot deny democracy,” Sturgeon said. “You cannot stand in the way of the right of the people of any country to choose their own future.”
Sturgeon is stepping up calls for Scotland to decide its own path, after the UK finally left the EU on January 31. But Johnson is refusing to sanction a vote, arguing that the 2014 referendum — when Scots voted 55% to 45% to remain in the UK — was a once-in-a-generation event.
Sturgeon says Brexit changes that, especially as Johnson’s government is pursuing a more decisive break from the EU in trade talks this year.
‘Affront to Democracy’
The narrative in Scotland is that the country of 5.4 million people is the last bastion of opposition to Johnson and his version of Brexit.
Sturgeon calls Brexit an “affront to democracy” because Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU in 2016.
The British government’s policy “seems to be a choice between a hard Brexit or an even harder Brexit,” Sturgeon said.
“That is not in the interest of the UK or Scotland.”
Sturgeon has been pushing for the UK to allow an independence vote this year.
In reality, she will head into Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2021 with the aim of reinforcing her mandate.
In December’s UK election, which handed Johnson the power to push through Brexit, the SNP won 48 of Scotland’s 59 districts on a platform of demanding a fresh decision on independence.
While two polls this year have shown a wafer-thin majority in favour of independence, most surveys in recent years have shown a fresh vote could go either way.
Ultimately, a second referendum will be “mutually agreed” with the government in Westminster, Sturgeon predicted.
What Scotland can’t risk, Sturgeon said, is to go down the route of Catalonia, which held a vote that was ruled as illegal and not internationally recognised.