Nicola Sturgeon: Boris Johnson does not have a mandate” to take Scotland out of the EU

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said Boris Johnson "emphatically does not have a mandate" to take Scotland out of the EU.

Speaking on Sky News, she said: "I'm bitterly disappointed at the result UK wide, I think Tory governments are bad for the UK, more than they're bad for Scotland, and I really don't want the UK to leave the European Union.

"But I've got to accept that England appears to have voted in a particular way, they appear to have voted for a Conservative government and appear to have voted to endorse the UK leaving the European Union.

"So Boris Johnson may have a mandate to take England out of the European Union, but he emphatically does not have a mandate to take Scotland out of the European Union.

"And Scotland must have the choice over our own future because it can't be any clearer than it has been made in this election today that Scotland doesn't want a five year Boris Johnson government and doesn't want to lose our status as a European nation."

Speaking at the Glasgow election count on Friday morning, Ms Sturgeon said the SNP's resounding victory north of the border showed that the people of Scotland were against leaving the EU.

She said: "I do accept that he has a mandate for Brexit in England, but he does not have a mandate in Scotland.

"I have a renewed strength and refreshed mandate to offer people the choice of an alternative to Brexit, of becoming an independent country able to protect our European membership.

"I don't pretend that everybody who voted SNP yesterday would support independence, but – and I think the Conservatives would have to accept this – there is a clear view that we must have the right to choose our own future."

Ms Sturgeon added that on a personal level, she "feels for" Liberal Democrat leader Jo S

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