The leaders of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will discuss preparations for independence referendums in Cardiff.
According to British media reports confirmed on Sunday, Scottish First Minister John Swinney, Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth will sign a memorandum in the Welsh capital calling on the British government to allow independence referendums to be held.
Swinney said there was now a good opportunity to achieve independence because, for the first time, all three countries were led by pro-independence first ministers.
London should “prepare for the period after the United Kingdom ceases to exist,” Swinney said, adding that British Prime Minister Andy Burnham could face the prospect of going down in history as the last prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Scotland held a referendum on independence in September 2014, but those opposed to breaking away won with 55.3% of the vote.
The prospect of a second Scottish independence referendum has remained firmly on the political agenda since the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, in which a narrow 51.89% nationwide majority voted to leave, while 62% of Scots voted to remain.
The Scottish National Party has since repeatedly argued that a new independence referendum has become essential because London “took” Scotland out of the European Union despite its clear vote to remain.
Sinn Fein, which governs Northern Ireland, said after the 2022 election that a referendum on reunifying the island of Ireland, partitioned in 1921, should be put on the agenda.
The party subsequently received wholly unexpected support from U.S. President Donald Trump, generating an extraordinary response in both Irish domestic politics and around the world. On Saturday, the first day of a semi-official visit to Ireland, Trump said he considered the reunification of the island of Ireland inevitable.
