By ERIC MAURICE
Sturgeon: "We will do everything we can to protect Scotland’s interests" (Photo: Scottish government/Flickr)
Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has presented
a bill proposing that a referendum on
Scotland's independence be held before the UK pulls out of the EU.
"A draft bill
giving Scotland the ability to reconsider the question of independence before
the UK leaves the EU has been published for consultation," a government
statement said on Thursday (20 October).
The question of the
referendum will be: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"
The government will
decide later whether to table the bill in the Scottish parliament, depending on
the progress of talks between London and Edinburgh, and between the UK and EU.
“My priority is clear –
we will do everything we can to protect Scotland’s interests," Sturgeon
said in the statement.
“The damage to jobs and
Scotland’s economy that will be caused by Brexit – especially a hard Brexit -
is now plain to see," she said, adding that her government "will
continue to work UK wide to seek to avert a hard Brexit".
"If we find that
our interests cannot be properly or fully protected within a UK context then
independence must be one of the options open to us and the Scottish people must
have the right to consider it," she added.
Sturgeon announced last
week at the conference of her Scottish National Party (SNP) that she would
present the bill.
She took the decision after British prime minister
Theresa May implicitly accused her party and government of being "divisive
nationalists" trying to "undermine" and "drive apart"
the UK.
The referendum bill will
be open to a public consultation until 11 January 2017.
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