LONDON (REUTERS) - Scotland must be allowed to hold another referendum on its place inside the United Kingdom following the crushing victory of the nationalists in the election, leader Nicola Sturgeon said on Friday (Dec 13).
The exit poll predicted that the Scottish National Party would win 55 of the 59 seats in Scotland.
"There is a mandate now to offer the people of Scotland the choice over our own future," Ms Sturgeon told Sky News.
"There is a clear desire and endorsement for the notion that Scotland should not be landed with a Boris Johnson government and ripped out of Europe against our own will," she said.
"Boris Johnson may have a mandate to take England out of the European Union. He emphatically does not have a mandate to take Scotland out of the European Union. Scotland must have a choice over our own future," said Ms Sturgeon.
British minister Michael Gove said on Thursday (Dec 12) another Scottish independence referendum would damage Scotland and the United Kingdom even if the Scots had overwhelmingly voted for the nationalists that favour such a poll.
"I don't believe that another independence referendum is inevitable, quite the opposite," Mr Gove, the minister in charge of Brexit planning, told ITV.
"I don't believe that a second independence referendum would be right for Scotland or right for the United Kingdom."