Fall 2018 ideal time for second independence vote: Sturgeon
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Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), delivers her keynote address to delegates at the SNP Conference in Glasgow, Scotland on October 15, 2016. (Photo by AFP)
First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, says the fall of 2018 would be “the commonsense time” for a second independence referendum.
In an interview with BBC on Thursday, Sturgeon implied that she agreed with leading nationalists, including her Predecessor Alex Salmond, who believe late next year would be the ideal time for a vote.
"Within that window, of when the outline of a UK deal becomes clear and the UK exiting the EU, I think would be a commonsense time for Scotland to have that choice, if that is the road we choose to go down,” she said.
“It’s not a game, it’s really, really serious and the implications for the UK are serious and the implications for Scotland are serious,” she added.
Sturgeon's comments come as the British government gets ready to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, allowing formal negotiations on exiting the EU to begin.
Article 50 would initiate two years of talks between London and the 28-nation bloc.
Under current constitutional conventions, a second independence vote in Scotland needs to be approved by the UK and such a request could prove difficult.
Scotland held an independence referendum in 2014 in which 55 percent of Scots voted to stay in the UK, while 45 percent voted to become independent.
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