LONDON, October 30. /TASS/. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, rejected on Wednesday Scotland’s proposal to give four constituent parts of UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) the right to veto in a future EU exit referendum. The referendum is set for 2017, if Cameron's Conservative Party wins a 2015 parliamentary election.
He responded to the proposal made by Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister of Scotland, who will replace Alex Salmond as the First Minister of Scotland. "We are one United Kingdom. There will be one in/out referendum (for the EU) and that will be decided on a majority of those who vote. That is how the rules should work," Cameron said.
“Should a bill be tabled in the House of Commons for a referendum on European Union membership, my party will table an amendment. That amendment will require that for the UK to leave the EU, each of the four constituent nations – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – would have to vote to do so, not just the UK as a whole,” Sturgeon said.
Cameron promised a referendum in 2017 on Britain's continued EU membership if his Conservative Party wins a 2015 national election.
A sociological study showed that England’s voters, home for a majority of UK population, would vote to leave the EU, while Scotland would vote to stay in the union. It is said a referendum in which Britain as a whole voted to leave the EU while Scots voted to stay in the EU would trigger a new UK constitutional crisis and demands for a new Scottish independence referendum.