PM put “on notice” by ALBA MP that General Election result will be used to negotiate independence
ALBA Party Westminster Leader Neale Hanvey MP has put the Prime Minister “on notice” that next year’s General Election can be used to secure a mandate to negotiate independence for Scotland.
The ALBA MP, has written to Rishi Sunak to demand the flailing PM respond directly to a recent legal finding that declared that the UK Supreme Court was “wrong in principle, wrong in law and runs contrary to the UK State’s obligations as a signatory to multilateral international treaty obligations.” in regards to its judgement on last year’s referral of the Scottish Government on the powers of the Scottish Parliament to hold an independence referendum.
Mr Hanvey is currently progressing a Bill through the UK Parliament that would see the Scotland Act amended to insert an agreed routemap to hold a future independence referendum similar to that which is applicable in Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Act of 1998 states that “if at any time it appears likely…that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland”, the Secretary of State shall make an Order in Council enabling a border poll.
The legislation allows for such a poll to be held every seven years.
Hanvey says that the recent legal opinion he released “demands a straight answer from the Prime Minister to the question of - does he believe the people of Scotland have the right to Self-Determination?”
In his letter to Rishi Sunak, Mr Hanvey informed the Prime Minister that if his Government fail to accept an agreed route to respect the right of the people of Scotland to choose their own future then the UK Government will be “on notice” that victory for a pro-independence majority at the next General Election and all subsequent elections will act a clear mandate for independence.
Alba Party want independence-supporting parties to form a Scotland United electoral pact, standing a single independence candidate in each constituency seeking a mandate to enter straight into independence negotiations with the UK Government. They argue that such an approach would galvanise the whole independence movement behind pro-independence candidates as opposed to risking the loss of seats to Labour and the Tories due to the growing gap between high support for independence and lowering support for the SNP.
In his letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Alba Party Westminster leader Neale Hanvey MP says:
"The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle of modern international law as set out in the UN Charter. It states that peoples, based on respect for the principle of equal rights and fair equality of opportunity, have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no interference.
I would like to ask you therefore a straight question. Does Scotland in the opinion of your Government have the right of self-determination or not and I would appreciate a straight answer.
My Scotland (Self-Determination) Bill provides the UK Government with a means to honour those principles and their obligation to ensure equal rights and equality of opportunity for the People of Scotland to that currently enjoyed by the People of Northern Ireland as set out in the Northern Ireland Act 1998. In establishing the right of the People of Scotland to self-determination, it is now incumbent on your government to bring forward a legislative motion to incorporate my Bill into the Scotland Act (1998) and honour the obligations the UK has freely entered into by providing an equitable democratic remedy for the People of Scotland to chose their own constitutional future.
Failing that action I serve notice that ALBA will urge the people of Scotland at the coming election to vote for parties standing on an unequivocal mandate to negotiate independence for Scotland and to take the requisite democratic action domestically and internationally to exercise that mandate from the sovereign people of Scotland."