Nicola Sturgeon pushes for second referendum on Scottish independence after UK Supreme Court ruling

Nicola Sturgeon has signalled the need for another Scottish independence referendum after Britain's Supreme Court ruled the devolved assembly in Edinburgh did not need to be consulted on triggering Brexit.

While the court ruled against Theresa May's Brexit plans and decreed that MPs were entitled to vote on whether to trigger Article 50, the justices unanimously ruled the Government did not need to consult with the devolved powers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“This raises fundamental issues above and beyond that of EU membership,” Ms Sturgeon said following the decision.

“Is Scotland content for our future to be dictated by an increasingly right-wing Westminster government with just one MP here, or is it better that we take our future into our own hands?

“It is becoming ever clearer that this is a choice that Scotland must make.”

Scottish voters rejected independence in 2014, but Ms Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party (SNP) say the result of the EU referendum last June — which a majority of Scottish people voted against — demonstrates the need for another independence referendum.

The SNP leader described the British government’s claims of Scotland being an equal partner as “empty rhetoric” and the devolution settlement as “worthless”.

“The claims about Scotland being an equal partner are being exposed as nothing more than empty rhetoric and the very foundations of the devolution settlement that are supposed to protect our interests [...] are being shown to be worthless,” she added.

Ms Sturgeon said she would press the case for a compromise deal on Scottish access to the EU when she meets the Prime Minister for talks on Brexit at the joint ministerial committee for devolved and UK governments on Monday.

“It is now crystal clear that the promises made to Scotland by the UK government about the Sewel convention, and the importance of embedding it in statute, were not worth the paper they were written on,” she said.

“Although the court has concluded that the UK government is not legally obliged to consult the devolved administrations, there remains a clear political obligation to do so. Indeed, the court itself notes the importance of Sewel as a political convention.”

Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, Ms Sturgeon pledged that MSPs would be given the opportunity to vote on the triggering of Article 50 regardless of the outcome.

Earlier this month, before Ms May’s Brexit speech, the First Minister said being forced out of the single market — which it is now clear that Britain is set to leave — would be one red line that might cause her to trigger a second independence referendum.