SNP hints at next independence vote

Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon said a schedule for a second independence referendum would be proposed in the party manifesto ahead of regional elections next year.

The manifesto is to be presented at the party's annual conference next month. Sturgeon said a referendum on independence could be held "in five years or 10 years."

"Our manifesto will set out what we consider are the circumstances and the timescale on which a second referendum might be appropriate," Sturgeon told the Press Association news agency.

The SNP won 56 of Scotland's 59 seats in the Westminster parliament in May's general election. In the 2014 referendum, people in Scotland voted by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent against independence from the rest of Britain.

A poll by Ipsos Mori for Scottish television channel STV showed 55 percent of voters in Scotland would back independence if there was another referendum.

Sturgeon said she was not surprised by the poll: "It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that support for independence has risen in the past year." She added that the British government had reneged on a promise to grant Scotland sweeping new powers and had imposed harsh social spending cuts.

jm/bw (Reuters, AFP)