Is Scotland heading for UK exit after new independence vote plan?

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has set out plans to unilaterally call a second independence referendum in October 2023 but only if she can persuade the Supreme Court that it is legal.

Nicola Sturgeon said she accepted that calling a vote without Westminster’s agreement would be challenged in court, so rather than wait, she was asking the highest court in the land for a ruling straight away.

She says that if she loses it would prove that the UK was not a voluntary union.

Her opponents accused her of playing a damaging game which would divide Scotland.