The UK’s Supreme Court has ruled Scotland cannot hold a second referendum on independence without the Westminster government's consent.
In their manifestos for the 2021 Holyrood elections, the SNP and Scottish Green Party both stated that their MSPs would push for such a vote. Between them, the two parties won 72 of 129 seats, a clear majority. They agreed to govern together, and proposed the referendum be held on 19 October 2023.
Rather than holding a referendum that unionists say is illegitimate and boycott, or that is banned by the courts halfway through the campaign, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon presented a draft referendum bill to the country’s top legal official, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, and asked her to go to the Supreme Court for an opinion on whether it would be allowed.
