Scottish independence: If Boris Johnson refuses to allow a second referendum, the game is a bogey – Angus Robertson

Scotland has been front page news across Europe since Hogmanay.

Respected newspapers from Italy’s Corriere de la Serra to Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung have been highlighting the prospects of Scotland becoming independent and rejoining the European Union.

For the first time across Europe, there is a clear understanding that this is a profoundly democratic question: an overwhelming majority in Scotland voted to remain in the EU, Westminster has imposed Brexit nevertheless and a growing majority in Scotland now favours independence in Europe.

This is the reality that confronted Boris Johnson in a New Year television interview with Andrew Marr.

The Prime Minister is such a media liability that his handlers rarely let him do a proper interview and you could see why.

Marr posed the simple question: why, if it was possible for English voters to decide to leave the EU, voters in Scotland couldn’t choose independence?

His answer was so unconvincing it highlights the next problem for the Tories and their little helpers in the Labour Party: they are democracy deniers and people are beginning to notice.

Boris Johnson cannot deny Scotland a democratic choice over independence, says Angus Robertson (Picture: Paul Grover/Daily Telegraph)

Increasingly journalists are going to ask what may become the “Marr Question”: how can voters in Scotland decide their own future?

If the answer from Westminster is that Scotland can only have democracy in decades far into the future but not now, the game is a bogey.

Just as it is unconscionable for Donald Trump to subvert US democracy, it is unsustainable for Boris Johnson to deny democracy for people in Scotland.

What was a debate about independence is now about democracy itself.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.