Not on My Watch: Truss Vows to Not Authorize Second Scottish Independence Referendum

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss does not intend to authorize a second referendum on Scottish independence if she is elected UK prime minister, she told The Telegraph.

"Scottish Nationalists accepted that their referendum was a once in a generation opportunity, and I will hold them to that," Truss said on Saturday, adding "I will work to strengthen our whole Union."

"As prime minister, I will do what is necessary and right to defend our Union, just as I have already done on the Northern Ireland Protocol," she continued.

At the end of June, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon proposed that a new vote on Scotland's independence should be held on October 19, 2023. Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly stated he would not allow a second referendum since the Scottish people already decided to stay within the United Kingdom in a 55%-to-45% vote in 2014.

"The SNP [Scottish National Party] lost the 2014 referendum and Nicola Sturgeon is now leading a campaign of deception to steamroller the UK and break up the Union. But I am completely clear that there will be no second Scottish independence referendum on my watch," Truss told The Telegraph on Saturday.

Sturgeon has told the Scottish Parliament that the government hopes that the referendum bill, passed on by the Lord Advocate to the UK Supreme Court, will be deemed to be within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, as the vote is consultative and not self-executing.

"The Scottish Independence Referendum Bill isn’t legal and will be invalidated if passed by the Scottish Parliament. When Westminster devolved power to Scotland, it did not include the ability to hold valid referenda to break up the Union," Truss emphasized.

"Any Scotland independence referendum would need to be authorised by the Westminster parliament. If I become prime minister, I would not grant that authority."

Rishi Sunak, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and one of the candidates for the post of UK Conservative Party leader and British prime minister, said on Tuesday that a second Scottish independence referendum is "the wrong priority at the worst possible moment" as the country should pull together instead of tearing itself apart.

Truss and former treasury secretary Sunak are the two final candidates in the election race for the post of prime minister. Johnson announced his resignation on July 7. Last week, the UK saw the fifth round of the voting in the Tories' leader race; the last round will take place starting from August 4 until early September.