DM Monitoring
LONDON: Scotland’s top civil court dealt nationalists a blow on Friday by declining to rule that the Scottish parliament had the right to call an independence referendum without London’s permission.
In the first skirmish of what is likely to become a major legal battle, the Court of Session in Edinburgh said it was premature and hypothetical to challenge Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s power to block a new secession vote.
But, with the Scottish National Party (SNP) set for a big win in May’s election to the Edinburgh parliament on the promise of a referendum, the fate of the 300-year-old union of Scotland with the rest of the United Kingdom is by no means assured.
Surveys suggest that Scottish voters, who rejected secession in 2014 but are now frustrated by being taken out of the European Union against their will, would this time vote for independence.
Johnson may therefore need the UK Supreme Court to uphold his veto on such a vote taking place. “I don’t see how you can avoid going to the court,” said David Hope, former deputy president of the Supreme Court.
A poll last month indicated the ruling SNP would capture 71 of 129 seats in Scotland’s parliament, the biggest majority since the assembly was formed.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, has vowed to hold a referendum early in the new parliament.
But the 1998 Scotland Act, which devolved some powers to Edinburgh and created the Scottish assembly, says matters relating to the union of the two countries can be decided only by the UK parliament in Westminster.
To stray from that, the UK parliament must agree to grant Scotland’s government powers using a “Section 30 order” – as it did when approving the 2014 referendum, in which Scots rejected independence by 55%-45%.
Johnson says that was a “once in a generation” vote and has ruled out granting permission for another.
“The political pressure may well prevail in the sense that in the end Boris Johnson has to simply give way for political reasons,” Hope told media. “But without a Section 30 order, I don’t see how a measure which directly attacks the union can get away with it.” The SNP says it will go ahead regardless, and force Johnson to test the issue in court.
