Scottish leader says she will push for a 2nd independence referendum

LONDON – Scottish leaders who overwhelming supported Britain's membership in the European Union warned Friday of possible renewed bids for independence after British voters turned their backs on the 28-nation bloc.

Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party, said that a second referendum on Scotland's membership in the United Kingdom was a possibility in the immediate future.

This potential second referendum would come two years after pro-E.U. Scottish voters rejected independence and opted to remain united with England, Wales and Northern Ireland in September 2014.

Backlash over the outcome also touched Northern Ireland and Wales, pointing to possible internal pressures tearing at the United Kingdom even as it looks toward the difficult process to break with its European partners.

"The vote here makes clear that the people of Scotland see their future as part of the European Union," said a statement by the Scottish National Party, which added there would be "consequences" to the outcome of the Britain referendum.

In Thursday's vote, Scottish voters supported the "Remain" campaign by a large margin, with every area in the country voting in favor of staying in the EU

Sixty-two percent of voters supported Remain, compared with just 47 percent in England.

Sturgeon said in a statement early Friday that her country "delivered a strong, unequivocal vote to remain in the EU."

Alex Salmond, the driving force behind the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, said Friday morning that he expected Sturgeon to begin the process of seeking another Scottish referendum, as indicated in the party's 2016 manifesto.

According to that document, "Scotland being taken out of the EU against our will" gives the Scottish Parliament "the right to hold another referendum."

"Decisions have consequences," Fiona Hyslop, Scotland's external affairs minister, told reporters Friday morning. "If the United Kingdom has made a decision against the interests of the Scottish people that will have consequences."

Likewise, in Northern Ireland, 11 of 18 constituencies supported the Remain campaign

Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist party dedicated to ending British jurisdiction over Northern Ireland, immediately announced that the Brexit results justified a united Ireland. The Republic of Ireland remains a member of the EU, so when Britain leaves the union, the Emerald Isle will now have a new line of partition.

"English votes have overturned the democratic will of Northern Ireland," Declan Kearney, Sinn Fein's national chairman, said in a statement Friday morning.

"This British government has forfeited any mandate to represent the economic or political interests of people in Northern Ireland."

In Wales, First Minister Carwyn Jones was quick to express displeasure with the vote. In a statement, Jones said that the referendum was grounds for an entire re-working of the relationships within the United Kingdom, putting the country into "entirely different footing."

J.K. Rowling, the Scottish author of the bestselling Harry Potter books, tweeted on Friday that Scotland will surely "seek independence now."

In 2014, Rowling had donated 1 million pounds ($1.38 million) against the cause of Scottish independence, arguing for the continued union of Great Britain.

"Cameron's legacy will be breaking up two unions," she wrote Friday of the British Prime Minister. "Neither needed to happen."