SNP will seek powers to hold an independence referendum by the end of the year, Nicola Sturgeon confirms

The First Minister said the general election result in Scotland “renews, reinforces and strengthens the mandate we have from previous elections to offer the people of Scotland a choice over their future.”

The SNP will still seek the powers to hold an independence referendum before the end of the year, Nicola Sturgeon said.

Speaking the morning after the vote that saw the SNP win 47 of Scotland’s 59 seats, the First Minister said the result “renews, reinforces and strengthens the mandate we have from previous elections to offer the people of Scotland a choice over their future.”

She said that it was “not about asking Boris Johnson or any other Westminster politician for permission” to do so and added that the party will publish a “detailed democratic case for the transfer of power to enable a referendum to be put beyond legal challenge” next week.

Reflecting on the election result in Scotland, she said she “could not reasonably have hoped for a more emphatic victory for the SNP in this election”.

She said that the result makes it “clear that that the kind of future desired by the majority in Scotland is different to that chosen by the rest of the UK”.

The First Minister thanked voters for giving her party an “overwhelming victory” and pledged to “focus relentlessly on building a fairer and more prosperous country for everyone who lives here.”

Speaking to Europeans living in Scotland, Sturgeon said “I am very aware that, for you, this may be the most difficult day since the morning after the Brexit vote.

“So let me say this again and from the heart – you are welcome here, we value your contribution and I will fight with everything I have to protect your right to call Scotland your home.”

It was now “clear beyond any doubt” that the majority of people in Scotland want to remain in the EU, Sturgeon claimed.

While she accepted that Boris Johnson now had a mandate for Brexit in England, she said he has “no mandate whatsoever” to take Scotland out of the EU.

Sturgeon also said that the Conservatives in Scotland had campaigned on rejecting a second independence referendum, but that “the people of Scotland rejected Tories instead”.

In comments directed at Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Sturgeon said: “So, to the Prime Minister let me be clear.

“This is not simply a demand that I or the SNP are making.

“It is the right of the people of Scotland – and you as the leader of a defeated party in Scotland have no right to stand in the way.”