What examples can you provide of Westminster politicians saying Scotland is part of a voluntary union?

by Yes
Posted on
1 day ago
2 min read

Before the independence referendum in 2014, Westminster political leaders across the UK and across the political spectrum characterised the Union as an equal partnership:

  • “… a future in which Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England continue to flourish side by side as equal partners.” – Theresa May, Home Secretary 2012
  • “Today we are equal partners in the United Kingdom.” – Alistair Darling, Better Together 2012
  • “The UK is a union of belonging and sharing. It is a union of equals and partnership.” – Johann Lamont, Scottish Labour Leader 2014
  • “Power lies with the Scottish people and we believe it is for the Scottish people to decide how we are governed.” – The leaders of the Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour Party, and Scottish Liberal Democrats, June 2014

And a UK Government paper published before the 2014 independence referendum set out that:

  • “… successive UK Governments have said that, should a majority of people in any part of the multi-national UK express a clear desire to leave it through a fair and democratic process, the UK Government would not seek to prevent that happening.”

Following the independence referendum, the cross-party Smith Commission, containing representatives of all parties in the Scottish Parliament, agreed that:

  • “…nothing in this report prevents Scotland becoming an independent country in the future should the people of Scotland so choose.” – The Smith Commission, 2014
This position of a multi-national UK has been articulated long before the 2014 referendum. This position goes back decades, long before the SNP was a permanent Parliamentary party or was the most popular party in Scotland.
  • “Scotland is a nation and voluntarily entered into Union with England as a partner and not as a dependency.” – The Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs, 1954
  • “Scotland is not a region, but a member nation of the United Kingdom.” – The Labour Party, 1970
  • “And if the Union is to flourish in the future a more concerted recognition of Scotland’s status as a nation will be necessary. It should be a mark of Scotland’s self-confidence in her own status as a nation that she shares her sovereignty with the other parts of the United Kingdom. But the willingness to share that sovereignty must never be taken for granted.” – The UK Government, 1993
UK Prime Ministers have also consistently supported the principle of the people of Scotland’s right to decide:
  • “…as a nation, [the people of Scotland] have an undoubted right to national self-determination; thus far they have exercised that right by joining and remaining in the Union. Should they determine on independence no English party or politician would stand in their way.” – Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister 1993
  • “…no nation could be held irrevocably in a Union against its will.” – John Major, Prime Minister 1993
And even today, in Wales, the Labour-run Welsh Government, which supports continued Westminster control in Wales, believes that “the United Kingdom is best seen now as a voluntary association of nations taking the form of a multi-national state”.
The independence referendum in 2014 took place against a background where it was understood by those leading the debate, and by those voting, that it was an exercise of a right that belonged to the people of Scotland, and that would continue to belong to them even after having exercised it once.