Sturgeon vows to 'restart' Scottish independence

Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she intends to "restart" the debate on Scottish independence over the next few weeks.

The Scottish National Party leader made her comments ahead of the release of the nation's economic growth commission presentation of its findings on economic policy options for an independent Scotland.

Sturgeon said the commission, chaired by former SNP member Andrew Wilson, would provide the opportunity to debate over Scotland's future based on "ambition and hope".

She noted that she would look into holding any potential independence vote in autumn when the UK could provide "clarity" regarding Brexit's outcome and what the UK and EU's relationship would look like moving forward.

Scotland voted to remain a part of the UK back in 2016; however, Sturgeon has said that a second independence referendum was now "highly likely".

Discussing exactly when she hoped for this new referendum to take place, Sturgeon said, "Once we get some clarity, which hopefully we will in the autumn of this year, about the Brexit outcome and the future relationship between the UK and the EU then I will consider again this question of the timing of an independence referendum."

While stating she would not say more on the topic in advance of March 2019, she did add that "over the next couple of weeks we will, I suppose, restart a debate about why independence for Scotland is an opportunity and what those opportunities are."

Marshall Gittler at ACLS Global attributed Mondays weakness in Sterling to Sturgeon's comments.

As of 1147 BST, the pound was on the back foot against the US dollar, retreating 0.47% to 1.34056.