SNP demands Scotland gets same democratic choice over Brexit
The SNP has demanded that Scotland gets the same democratic choice as UK and European governments will get over Brexit as calls were repeated for a second independence referendum.
The SNP has demanded that Scotland gets the same democratic choice as UK and European governments will get over Brexit as calls were repeated for a second independence referendum.
The party's leader in Westminster, Angus Robertson, said the British and European parliaments would vote on the terms of Brexit.
However, the Prime Minister said now was not the time for a second independence referendum, saying Britain must now come together to secure the best deal for Britain as it leaves the European Union.
Amid loud cheers and heckling in the Commons, Mr Robertson said: "The Scottish Government was elected with a higher percentage of the vote, with a bigger electoral mandate than the UK Government.
"Yesterday the Scottish Parliament voted by 69 to 59 that people in Scotland should have a choice about their future.
"After the negotiations at the European Union are concluded, there will be a period for democratic approval of the outcome.
"That choice will be exercised in this Parliament, in the European Parliament, and in 27 member states of the European Union.
"Given that everybody else will have a choice at that time, will the people of Scotland have a choice about their future?"
In her reply, Mrs May initially called the SNP "the Scottish Nationalist Party", before Speaker John Bercow appealed for quiet in the chamber.
Mrs May continued: "The SNP consistently talks about independence as the only subject they wish to talk about.
"What I say to him and his colleagues is this - now is not the time to be talking about a second independence referendum.
"On today of all days, we should be coming together as a United Kingdom to get the best deal for Britain."
Earlier Mr Robertson said Mrs May had "broken her promise and broken her word" by triggering Article 50 before reaching an agreement with the UK's devolved administrations.
Mrs May said: "I've been very clear throughout, and since the first visit that I made as Prime Minister to Edinburgh last July, which was that we were going to work with the devolved administrations, that we would develop a UK-wide approach, but that in the negotiations it would be a UK approach that was taken into the negotiations, and it would be the United Kingdom Government that took forward that position.
"I would simply remind him that Scotland is part of the United Kingdom."