Scottish secessionist dream takes a blow

Scottish secessionist dreams of a swift second independence referendum were dashed yesterday when they lost 21 of their 56 seats to parties that want to keep the United Kingdom intact.

As Britain slipped closer to political deadlock after Prime Minister Theresa May's disastrous gamble on a snap election, the losses by the Scottish National Party (SNP) undermined Nicola Sturgeon's bid for a second independence vote.

Sturgeon's party, which nearly swept the board in Scotland two years ago, lost heavyweights to a Conservative Party reinvigorated by Scottish leader Ruth Davidson.

Those losses included former leader Alex Salmond, who led Scotland in the unsuccessful bid for independence in 2014, and the SNP's top lawmaker in the British Parliament, Angus Robertson.

"The union is safer than it was," political commentator David Torrance said.

While the loss of seats pushes the issue of a second referendum onto a back burner for now, opinion polls show about 45 percent of Scottish voters support independence.

Sturgeon said it was "a disappointing result" for her party, two years after it won a landslide in Scotland, and admitted that the focus on independence was undoubtedly a factor in the poor result.

She has argued that last year's Brexit ballot called the future of the United Kingdom into question because England and Wales voted to leave the European Union but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay.

Sturgeon said she would now seek an alliance with like-minded parties to try to keep the Conservatives out of government and to keep both Scotland and the UK within the single European market .

The SNP still took 35 of Scotland's 59 seats in Britain's 650-seat national parliament, while the Conservatives won 13 Scottish seats, achieving the second largest share of the vote. Labour won seven and the Liberal Democrats four.