Scottish lawmakers back call for new independence referendum
March 28, 2017  22:05
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Scottish lawmakers voted 69-59 in favor of an independence referendum Tuesday, setting Edinburgh on a collision course with the UK government. 

The vote by members of the Scottish Parliament gives the green light to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to ask the UK Parliament for a referendum between autumn 2018 and spring 2019.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has indicated she will reject the Sturgeon's timetable. Britain is expected to leave the European Union in 2019, and May has said that "now is not the time" for a vote that could break up the United Kingdom.

But Sturgeon has said there is an "unquestionable democratic mandate" for a referendum.

In a failed 2014 referendum on independence, Scotland voted 55% to 45% to remain in the UK. But the Scottish National Party, led by Sturgeon, said the landscape has changed since Britain decided to leave the EU.
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