Leaders of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland Renew Call for Independence from UK

The nationalist first ministers of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland met on Sept. 14 to call for referendums on leaving the UK, saying that “Westminster’s time is coming to an end.”

For the first time since modern devolution began in 1999, the three countries all have first ministers who favor leaving the four-nation union and breaking away from the Westminster government currently led by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

The leaders from Wales’s Plaid Cymru, the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), and Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein signed a memorandum of understanding on Sept. 14 that said no Westminster government had the right to “block democracy.”

The meeting followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments over the weekend about the possibility of a unified Ireland.

At a joint news conference, Scottish First Minister John Swinney and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill both called for independence referendums, while Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth did not lay out a timetable for one in his country.

‘An Inalienable Right’

Swinney, the SNP leader, said the day marked a “pivotal moment in the constitutional journey of the United Kingdom,” adding that the principle of self-determination “is an inalienable right.”

Swinney described Burnham as the “last prime minister of the United Kingdom.”

“Because the people of Scotland, if given the choice of independence in a referendum, will take that choice,” Swinney said.

In a 2014 independence referendum, Scots voted against leaving the union by 55 percent to 44 percent.

The three leaders met in the Welsh capital, Cardiff, as representatives of their parties rather than in their capacities as first ministers—likely because of the delicate power-sharing arrangement in Northern Ireland between the nationalists and the unionists. Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald also attended.

“For people watching across these islands—for people watching around the world—there could be no clearer sign that Westminster’s time is coming to an end,” the memorandum of understanding stated.

“No Westminster government has the right to block democracy or undermine the principle that our people will decide their own future.

“We recognize that our parties have different constitutional positions and that each nation will determine its own future in its own way and in its own time.”

Elections in May saw Plaid take control of the Welsh government for the first time, with Labour trailing third behind Reform, while the SNP retained power in Scotland, comfortably ahead of Labour and Reform.

Northern Ireland Tensions Persist

Northern Ireland was partitioned and remained part of the UK when Ireland won independence from Britain more than a century ago, with tensions leading to the decades-long period of sectarian violence known as the Troubles. While the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 has led to peace, tensions persist.

Sinn Fein resumed its power-sharing role with the unionists in Northern Ireland’s legislature in 2024 after a two-year hiatus due to post-Brexit disagreements with them.

During a visit to his golf course, which was hosting the Irish Open, Trump said over the weekend that he would “love to see” a reunified Ireland.

Plaid has ruled out an independence referendum before the next election for the Welsh parliament, the Senedd, due in 2030.

Ap Iorwerth said at the news conference that there is a “growing recognition that Westminster is not working” and that “power genuinely needs to be brought closer to people and communities.”

“Wales should have the power, the resources, the fair treatment we need as a nation to build the future our people deserve,” he said.

McDonald labeled the meeting “historic,” saying: “We have the right to a referendum. We have the right to decide our future.

“We will not accept or tolerate any prime minister telling us that right is off the table.”

O’Neill said all three nations are “distinctively different” and have unique priorities, but she said the “common cause” among the three “is that Westminster does not and will never serve [the people of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales] well.”

‘A Summit of Separatists’

Speaking from the seat of Northern Ireland’s legislature, Emma Little-Pengelly, the Democratic Unionist Party deputy first minister, who serves alongside O’Neill in the power-sharing executive, accused the Sinn Fein politician of pursuing “narrow political agendas” by attending what she said was “a summit of separatists.”

Little-Pengelly said on X that her party had “warned time and time again that republicanism would attempt to weaponize the role of First Minister. That a Sinn Féin First Minister would utilize the position to seek the abolition of Northern Ireland and the break up of our United Kingdom.”

Asked by journalists when he would like to see a referendum, Ap Iorwerth responded: “The timescale will be set by the people of Wales when they are persuaded. My job is to persuade.”

Ap Iorwerth was appointed the first non-Labour head of the Welsh government after May’s election.

While a referendum appears to be off the table for the time being, Welsh ministers are seeking extra powers to be devolved from Westminster, including over policing and youth justice.

Ap Iorwerth said Burnham, a former mayor of Greater Manchester who supports localism, had “a lot to learn” about “how devolution to a nation is rather different to devolution to a region or a city of England.”

“I want to have a positive relationship with him; I believe he wants to have a positive relationship with me,” Ap Iorwerth said of Burnham.

Burnham ‘Committed to Change’

“The prime minister is committed to delivering change across all four nations of the United Kingdom and believes strongly in the union,” the British government said in a statement shared with UK media outlets.

The talks among the leaders in Cardiff were expected to cover the way that the devolved nations are funded by the UK government.

Welsh ministers claim that the method used, known as the Barnett Formula, disadvantages Wales, while Scotland benefits from it.

Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Darren Millar, in a statement, accused Plaid of “obsessing about independence,” and said the first minister should instead “be focused on dealing with the crisis engulfing the Welsh NHS and the declining standards in Welsh schools.”

Dan Thomas, Reform UK’s Welsh leader, said on X that Plaid was “showing its true colors” by meeting with Sinn Fein and the SNP, whom he labeled “the Scottish separatists.”

“Sinn Fein’s republican movement spent decades pursuing the UK’s destruction,” Thomas wrote, including through what he termed “IRA terrorism.” 

“Now Plaid chooses to sit down and plot with them as fellow anti-British separatists,” he wrote.

The leaders of the three devolved nations are set to meet with the British prime minister in October.