Tony Blair Warns Brexit Will Cause Scotland To Leave The United Kingdom

Scotland Will Quit Britain If UK Leaves EU, Warns Tony Blair
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Scotland will vote to leave the United Kingdom if Britain votes to leave the European Union, Tony Blair has warned.

Nicola Sturgeon has warned David Cameron Brexit would lead to an "overwhelming demand" for a second independence referendum in Scotland.

Speaking to the French radio station Europe1, Blair said: "In my opinion, if the UK votes to leave Europe, Scotland will vote to leave the UK."

On Sunday, Sturgeon told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme: "If Scotland had voted to stay in and the UK as a whole votes to to come out, which therefore means Scotland faces being taken out of the EU when we don't want to be, I have said before and I will say again, it is highly likely that would trigger an overwhelming demand for a second referendum on independence."

She added: "The democratic outrage of being taken out of Europe against our will would make that almost inevitable."

The Scottish first minister also warned David Cameron that holding the referendum in June would be a mistake.

"Two reasons why I would not be in favour of a June referendum.

"One, you might interpret as being a bit selfish. The Scottish election is in May, indeed the Welsh, Northern Irish, London elections are in May. I think to have a referendum campaign starting in parallel would be disrespectful to those important elections.

"The second reason is I think it would be better for David Cameron to leave more time between - if he does get a deal at the February European Council - to leave more time between that deal and the point of decision."