Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland invoke the right to independence

“ Aour nations have the right to self-determination. No Westminster government has the right to prevent democracy or to undermine the principle that our peoples will decide their own future”, reads the text.

The memorandum of understanding was endorsed by Scottish Prime Ministers John Swinney, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth, leader of Plaid Cyrmu, and Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, co-leader of Sinn Féin.

For the first time, independent parties have been the main political force in the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments since 1999, when Scotland and Wales began to have their own parliaments.

Sinn Féin is also the party with the most seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly since the 2022 elections.

However, any constitutional reform must be approved by the British Government, based in London.

The signatories acknowledged that “they have different constitutional positions and that each nation will determine its own future in its own way and in its own time”.

“ We call on the British Government to prepare, plan and facilitate constitutional change in each jurisdiction,” they add.

At a joint press conference, Rhun ap Iorwerth admitted that “the paths are different, different in nature and speed,” but insisted that “there is a shared determination that it is up to the population to decide.”.

The British Executive opposes the holding of a new referendum desired by the SNP on Scotland's independence after 2014, in which the vote for stay in the United Kingdom prevailed.

The British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, also recently excluded the possibility of a vote on the unification of Ireland desired by Sinn Féin.

The question of the constitutional future of Northern Ireland came up again this weekend, when American President Donald Trump commented that it would be “fantastic” a “unified” Ireland.

The 1998 peace agreements provide for a referendum on the unification of Ireland if the British government considers that there is support from most voters in Northern Ireland for unification.