U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May remains opposed to a second referendum on Scottish independence, her spokesman said, after a report that Scotland’s government is preparing to call another vote pushed the pound lower.
“Should there be a second referendum? Our clear answer to that is ‘no,”’ the spokesman, Greg Swift, told reporters in London on Monday. “In 2014, the people of Scotland made a clear decision to stay in the U.K. It was a fair, legal and decisive result.”
The pound fell against all its major peers after the London-based Times newspaper reported that May’s team is preparing for Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to use the Brexit process to call a new vote. Sterling dropped as much as 0.6 percent against the dollar and was down 0.4 percent at $1.2413 at 12:21 p.m. in London.
Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, has repeatedly said since the day after the June 23 Brexit vote that another independence referendum was “highly likely” after Scots chose to remain in the European Union. She said at the end of last month that “time is now running out” for the U.K. government to make progress toward a compromise that would keep Scotland as part of the EU’s single market, a demand she made to avoid another vote on leaving the U.K.
Pivotal Month
May’s ministers have now made it clear they don’t intend to seek continued single-market membership in their talks on a post-Brexit deal with the EU. The prime minister intends to trigger Britain’s withdrawal as close as possible to the summit of the bloc taking place in Brussels on March 9-10, according to two government officials involved in Brexit planning. The SNP holds its spring conference in Aberdeen a week later.
The Scottish government in Edinburgh didn’t comment on the Times report.
Scotland voted by 55 percent to 45 percent to stay in the U.K. in September 2014, but a BMG poll for the Glasgow-based Herald newspaper carried out late last month found the gap in favor of remaining within the union had narrowed to two percentage points.
Bookmaker William Hill Plc said on Monday there’s a greater chance of Scotland’s nationalists succeeding should there be another referendum, with odds of a “yes” vote at 8 to 11 versus evens for “no.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Eddie Buckle in London at ebuckle@bloomberg.net, Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Rodney Jefferson
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