Scottish Government Says Brexit Should Be Postponed, Wants New Referendum To Be Held

The Scottish government sees postponing Brexit and holding a second EU referendum as the best way out of the current deadlock with United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2019) The Scottish government sees postponing Brexit and holding a second EU referendum as the best way out of the current deadlock with United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon said.

On Tuesday, the lower chamber of the UK parliament rejected in a 432-202 vote the latest Brexit deal reached by London and Brussels.

"It is time to recognise that reality and change course, starting with a new approach which seeks to find a way forward by genuinely involving the four nations of the UK ... The Scottish Government believes that the best way of resolving the current impasse is to negotiate an extension to the Article 50 period and hold a second EU referendum.

Given the rejection of your deal we will now be intensifying work towards the achievement of that aim," Sturgeon wrote in her letter to UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday.

May has pledged that she would report on the progress of the withdrawal agreement next Monday if her government survived the no-confidence vote proposed by the Labour Party immediately after the results of the Commons' vote were announced. The motion will be debated in parliament later in the day.

The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in June 2016 and is expected to do so by late March 2019.