‘This changes everything’: how Brexit altered Scotland’s political landscape

Supporters of Scottish independence wave flags and march in Edinburgh, this year. Photograph: Robert Perry/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Supporters of Scottish independence wave flags and march in Edinburgh, this year. Photograph: Robert Perry/AFP/Getty Images ‘This changes everything’: how Brexit altered Scotland’s political landscape Former party leaders reflect on the turbulence that followed the referendum in which most Scottish voters backed the losing side T he decision to quit the EU bolstered support for Scottish independence , which a decade after the Brexit referendum is at near record levels, according to Scottish Labour’s former leader Kezia Dugdale. Dugdale said the Brexit vote “creates a frame around fairness” for many in Scotland because, unlike England, Scottish voters comprehensively backed remain in 2016, by 62% to 38%, yet found their country taken out of Europe. She also believed the UK government’s embrace of a “hard Brexit” swayed many Scots who had been undecided about Scottish independence when a referendum was held on the issue in 2014. Support for independence currently stands at about 50%, reaching 55% in some polls. Dugdale recalled feeling “utterly devastated” when the leave result was confirmed early on 24 June 2016. That morning, she spoke privately to the then first minister, Nicola Sturgeon , telling her: “This changes everything.” She said many Scots felt they “faced an immediate binary choice of an independent Scotland in Europe or a Boris Johnson-led Brexit Britain”, and that sense of betrayal changed the landscape of Scottish politics . View image in fullscreen Kezia Dugdale says she felt utterly devastated by the vote to leave the EU. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian “I think it sustained support for independence, which otherwise would have fallen back,” she said. Ruth Davidson, who was the Scottish Conservative leader in 2016 and championed the remain campaign, was shocked by the leave result. She recalled speaking that day to Sturgeon, who sought to persuade her to “move forward together” alongside Dugdale in support of a second independence vote. “I can remember thinking ‘no, no, no’,” Davidson said. “The remain vote shouldn’t be coopted for something it wasn’t for.” In her memoir Frankly, Sturgeon said:“I felt distraught and enraged by the prospect of Brexit and what it said about Scotland’s powerlessness within the UK. I had a strong sense of ‘If not now, when?’” There was speculation that in the wake of Brexit, support for Scottish independence could surpass 60%, but the tidal wave many expected did not transpire. View image in fullscreen Boris Johnson neglected to show genuine leadership and failed to articulate a coherent vision for a unified post-Brexit Britain, says Ruth Davidson. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images Instead, over the past decade, the issue’s salience faded as the political crises that followed Boris Johnson’s hard Brexit, the Covid pandemic, the Ukraine war, and Don