'It is time for independence': Nicola Sturgeon says she will demand Scottish vote to leave the UK next year

• Nicola Sturgeon has vowed in her closing speech at the Scottish National Party's annual conference in Aberdeen to rejoin the EU as an independent country after the UK leaves.
• The Scottish government is preparing to demand a Scottish independence referendum 'within weeks.'
• She also used the speech to attack Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Donald Trump as 'so-called strongmen 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND - Nicola Sturgeon has announced she plans to request an independence referendum to take place next year, in order to remove Scotland from "the politics of Johnson and Trump."

"Be in no doubt, we are winning the case for independence," the Scottish first minister told the Scottish National Party conference in Aberdeen.

"Scotland is rich enough, strong enough and big enough to take our place among the proud, independent nations of the world," she said.

She said that Edinburgh will formally request a section 30 order of the Scotland Act 1998, which would pave the way for another independence referendum next year, citing a poll on Sunday which put support for independence at 50%.

"I can confirm today that before the end of this year, I will demand the transfer of power that puts the legality of a referendum beyond any doubt," she said.

"And when I do, the question should not be to the SNP - what will we do if Westminster refuses?

"The question should be demanded of the Westminster parties - what gives you any right to deny people in Scotland our ability to choose our own future?"

Watch Nicola Sturgeon demand Scottish independence

 

She said that any referendum would have to take place in 2020.

Downing Street plans to reject Scotland's request, with the prime minister's spokesperson saying: "The Prime Minister has set out his views in relation to an independence referendum. The last vote was described as once in a generation."

Standing up against politics of Trump and Johnson

The first minister urged her party to stand up to the "crude populism" she said was espoused by leaders including Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.

She cited the Supreme Court's ruling that the prime minister had acted unlawfully when he attempted to shut down parliament in September, as well as the US president's decision to withdraw troops from the Syrian border last week which has sparked a brutal conflict in the region.

"Here in the UK, we have a prime minister who has acted unlawfully, and shown no concern for the human consequences of his disastrous Brexit policy," she said.

"Across the Atlantic, the current incumbent of the White House has casually allowed a war in the Middle East to re-erupt."

"What leaders like Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have in common is this: a belief that nothing should be allowed to stand in the way of their own self-interest.

"Not contrary opinions that might challenge the notion that they - and only they - speak for the people. Not facts or evidence. Not the rule of law. Not even democracy. In some cases, not even basic human rights."

She added: "Crude populism tramples on the rights of minorities and tears at the very fabric of our democracy. It is not for us. That is not who we are."

Sturgeon has previously described some of Trump's views as "deeply abhorrent," and said she was "not prepared to be a politician that maintains a diplomatic silence in the face of racism, misogyny or hatred of any kind."

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