The SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon Has Led the Cause of Scottish Independence to a Dead End
The UK Supreme Court has blocked an attempt to hold a new referendum on Scottish independence. The setback has exposed the limits of SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon’s strategy, which channeled the independence movement’s radical energies into a centrist cul-de-sac.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP, is seen at a Scottish independence demo outside Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament, on November 23, 2022, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Peter Summers / Getty Images)
On November 23, the UK Supreme Court ruled that Nicola Sturgeon’s devolved Scottish National Party (SNP) government did not have the legal authority to stage a referendum on Scotland’s independence from the UK without the explicit consent of Westminster MPs.
The verdict marked the end of Sturgeon’s ultracautious independence strategy — a strategy that has defined her approach to the issue since at least the Brexit vote in June 2016, which saw Scots overwhelmingly endorse the UK’s continued membership of the EU, while voters in England and Wales backed Britain’s withdrawal from the European bloc.
Under Sturgeon’s leadership, the SNP has slowly chiseled away at international opposition to the breakup of the British state, targeted its political messaging at center-ground Scottish constituencies, and repeatedly tried to persuade British political elites to negotiate around the UK’s constitutional impasse. Now, the SNP leader has reached an impasse of her own.
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