First Ministers to sign joint independence declaration in Cardiff

Craig Paton and Jonathan McCambridge, Press Association

The leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland’s governing parties are set to sign a joint declaration calling for their nations to be given the right to hold independence referendums.

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, SNP leader John Swinney and Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O’Neill are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding when they meet in Cardiff on Monday.

The agreement will seek to increase pressure on the UK Government to recognise the right of people in their respective nations to determine their constitutional futures.

The trio will meet in their capacities as party leaders rather than as First Ministers, with the summit also expected to cover areas where their governments can work together.

Successive UK governments have opposed holding further referendums on leaving the UK since Scotland voted against independence in 2014.

The issue was brought back into focus last week when Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the Commons another Scottish independence referendum could be held if there was a “clear consensus” for one north of the border.

However, Downing Street subsequently insisted there had been no change in policy, while a letter from Mr Burnham to Mr Swinney said another referendum remained “off limits”.

Speaking ahead of Monday’s meeting, Mr ap Iorwerth said the three leaders would discuss both the issues on which they agreed and those on which they differed.

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “We’re talking about how we can work together, let’s talk about what we have in common and what we don’t.”

He added: “There’s also something that ties us together, isn’t there?

“That pursuit of a different attitude from UK Government.

“It could be around the constitutional question, it could, more acutely, be around fair funding, making sure resource is shared in a way that is equitable, that feels fair, that we have the powers to build the future for the people that we represent.”

Mr ap Iorwerth said the three could work together despite differences between their respective parties and governments.

He said: “We can work together as First Ministers across these islands, I think, in a positive way for the people we represent, whilst also absolutely reflecting on the fact that we have differences between us.”

A Sinn Féin source said the Cardiff summit would consider “where the parties can work together to make a difference to people’s lives; and how each of our nations has the right to shape its own future through democratic means, guided by the will of its people”.

The source added: “In Ireland, the constitutional future belongs to the people of this island.

“The Good Friday Agreement gives us the democratic means to decide it, and now is the time to prepare seriously for that choice.

“Irish unity is not a distant aspiration.

“The work of building the new Ireland must begin now.”

The meeting comes as Scotland’s Education Secretary Mairi McAllan insisted another independence referendum remained an option.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Show, she said: “An independence referendum is not off the table.

“We devote time to it because it is the transformational change that allows Scotland to stand on its own two feet in the world and to fulsomely pursue the better that we want.”

‘Unsustainable’

Ms McAllan said the “status quo in the UK is unsustainable”, pointing to the fact that the governments in Wales and Northern Ireland are also now led by politicians whose parties support leaving the UK.

She added: “The only people who, until last week anyway, didn’t appear to understand that were the UK Government.

“But the Prime Minister stood at the despatch box in the House of Commons last week and was clear that Scotland must have a route to choose our own future, so we just want that agreed now in a legal format so that we can take forward our mandate in Scotland.”

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