Scottish First Minister announces draft bill for a second referendum

Scottish First Minister and SNP Chief Nicola Sturgeon announced on Thursday that the Scottish Government will publish draft legislation on holding a second independence referendum next week.

In the first referendum vote which took place on 18 September, 2014, 55 percent of Scottish voters said "no" to Scottish independence. Scotland voted to remain in the EU by a large margin, but is now forced into leaving the EU because the United Kingdom as a whole voted to leave.

The bill is contemplated as a debate instead of a rerun of the 2014 vote and is  part of a strategy to ensure that Scotland's voice is heard in the negotiations to take Britain out of the European Union.

On 24 June, the day after the UK voted to leave the EU, Ms Sturgeon said a second independence referendum was "highly likely". "There is no rational case for taking the UK out of the single market and there is no authority for it either," she told delegates at her Scottish National Party conference.