London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Sturgeon: Scotland 'cannot be imprisoned' in UK

Scotland "cannot be imprisoned in the union against its will" by the UK government, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The Scottish first minister says the SNP's success in the general election gives her a mandate to hold a new referendum on independence.

However, UK ministers are opposed to such a move with Michael Gove saying the vote in 2014 should be "respected".

Ms Sturgeon told the BBC that if the UK was to continue as a union, "it can only be by consent".

She told The Andrew Marr Show that the UK government would be "completely wrong" to think saying no to a referendum would be the end of the matter, adding: "It's a fundamental point of democracy - you can't hold Scotland in the union against its will."

However Mr Gove told the Sophy Ridge programme on Sky that "we were told in 2014 that that would be a choice for a generation - we are not going to have an independence referendum in Scotland".

The SNP won a landslide of Scottish seats in the snap general election, making gains from the Conservatives and Labour and unseating Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson.

However UK-wide the Conservatives won a comfortable majority, returning Boris Johnson to Downing Street and setting up a constitutional stand-off over Scotland's future.

The Scottish government wants a referendum deal with UK ministers similar to that which underpinned the 2014 vote, to ensure that the outcome is legal and legitimate - but are facing opposition from the UK government.

Ms Sturgeon said it was "fundamentally not democratic" for Mr Johnson to rule out a referendum when his party had been "defeated comprehensively" in Scotland - losing seven of its 13 seats while standing on a platform of opposition to independence.

The SNP leader said: "I said this to him on Friday night on the telephone - if he thinks saying no is the end of the matter then he's going to find himself completely and utterly wrong.

"It's a fundamental point of democracy - you can't hold Scotland in the union against its will. You can't lock us in a cupboard and turn the key and hope everything goes away.

"If the UK is to continue it can only be by consent. If Boris Johnson is confident in the case for the union he should be confident enough to make that case and allow people to decide.

"Scotland cannot be imprisoned within the United Kingdom against its will. These are just basic statements of democracy."


'Contempt for democracy'

Ms Sturgeon added: "The risk for the Conservatives here is the more they try to block the will of the Scottish people, the more utter contempt they show for Scottish democracy, the more they will increase support for Scottish independence - which in a sense is them doing my job for me.

"The momentum and the mandate is on the side of those of us who think Scotland should be independent, but also on the side of those who want Scotland to be able to chose its own future."

Mr Johnson spoke to Ms Sturgeon on the phone after being returned to government, and told her that he "remains opposed" to a second independence vote.

A Downing Street spokesman said the prime minster was "standing with the majority of people in Scotland who do not want to return to division and uncertainty".

This was echoed on Sunday morning by Mr Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who said the result of the previous referendum in 2014 should hold for "a generation".

He said: "In this general election we have just seen what happens when politicians try to overturn a referendum result, and in the same way we should respect the referendum result in 2014 in Scotland.

"Scotland is stronger in the United Kingdom. You can be proudly Scottish and proudly British together.

"The best of this country are British institutions like the NHS and the BBC, and therefore we should be proud of what we have achieved together and confident that the UK is a strong partnership that works in the interests of all."

Meanwhile some senior figures in the Scottish Labour party are backing Nicola Sturgeon's calls for Holyrood to decide the timing of another independence vote.

The party's health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said she insists she would still oppose separation from the UK but accepts the SNP now have a mandate for a referendum in 2020.

Her views were supported by former Labour MP Ged Killen, who lost his seat on Thursday.

"I campaigned on a promise to vote against indyref2, but I lost," he wrote on Twitter. "The SNP made massive gains on a promise to hold another referendum and, as democrats, we must accept it even if we don't like it."

Another former MP Paul Sweeney said it was important for Labour to "reflect" on the constitutional position.

He told the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland programme: "A more federal relationship is something that urgently needs to happen, and I think we need to be galvanised to present an argument that that needs to happen."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×