Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee 18 December 2025
There is a difference between the UK and Spain, for example, in that Spain does not allow a legal mechanism for a referendum on the independence of its various constituent parts. Spain also does not acknowledge the right to self-determination for those areas.
In the UK, various Prime Ministers and the Smith commission have stated explicitly the idea that Scotland should have the right to decide on its own future. That is in the Smith commission report, which the UK Government signed up to. In a recent change to the constitution of Turks and Caicos Islands, the UK Government recognised and facilitated a legal mechanism and, as the cabinet secretary just mentioned, there is a mechanism in Northern Ireland.
It seems to be the case that the UK acknowledges and apparently supports the right of Scotland to exercise self-determination, but that can be done only at the whim of a Westminster Government. When it is decided by somebody else, self-determination is not self-determination. That cannot be. If the right to exercise self-determination has to be approved by somebody else, that is not self-determination. Is that the key point here?
In summary, the evidence that we have heard so far shows that the UK says that it recognises Scotland’s right to self-determination, but it is deliberately withholding Scotland’s ability to exercise that right. The UK keeps jealously to its own heart the idea that only the UK Government can decide on that and, in that way, it can prevent that right from being exercised. From what we have heard, the fact that the UK recognises the right but refuses to facilitate the exercise of it seems to be very odd in the international context.