Britain’s top court on Wednesday rejected a request by the Scottish devolved government in Edinburgh to hold a new referendum on independence without London’s approval.

The unanimous decision by the Supreme Court torpedoed the Scottish nationalist government’s push to hold a second referendum next year.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) had said that if it did, it would turn the next general election into a de facto vote on secession from the rest of the UK, creating constitutional chaos.

First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said she respected the ruling but was “disappointed”.

If Scotland could “choose our own future without Westminster’s approval,” the idea of ??the UK as a voluntary partnership would be debunked as a “myth,” she tweeted.

Scottish Supreme Court President Robert Reed has said the power to call a referendum is “reserved” for the UK Parliament under Scotland’s decentralization agreement.

Therefore “the Scottish Parliament does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence,” Reed said.

Sturgeon’s SNP-led government in Edinburgh was set to vote on the question “Should Scotland be an independent country?” next October.

The UK government, which oversees constitutional affairs for the whole country, has repeatedly refused to give Edinburgh the power to hold a referendum.

She believes the last one – in 2014, when 55 per cent of Scots rejected independence – settled the issue for a generation.

But Sturgeon and her party say there is now an “undeniable mandate” for another independence referendum, especially given Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Most voters in Scotland were against Brexit.

Scotland’s last general election brought back a majority of pro-independence lawmakers for the first time.

At a hearing at the UK Supreme Court last month, government lawyers in London argued that the Scottish Government could not decide on its own to hold a referendum.

Authorization had to be granted because the constitutional composition of the four nations of the United Kingdom was reserved for the government in London.

Scottish Government lawyers wanted a decision on the rights of the devolved Parliament in Edinburgh if London continues to block an independence referendum.

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, Scotland’s most senior barrister, said Scottish independence is a “vivid and important” issue in Scottish politics.

The Scottish Government tried to create its own legal framework for another referendum, arguing that the “right to self-determination is a fundamental and inalienable right”.

However, the Supreme Court rejected international comparisons by the SNP, which had compared Scotland to Quebec or Kosovo.

Reed said the international right to self-determination applies only to former colonies, or where a people are being oppressed by military occupation, or where a defined group is being denied its political and civil rights.

None of this applies to Scotland, the Supreme Court President said.

He also rejected the SNP’s argument that a referendum is only “advisory” and not legally binding.

Any such vote would have practical political ramifications regardless of its legal status, the judge said.

Without the court’s approval, Sturgeon had promised to make the next UK general election, due no later than January 2025, a pro-independence campaign.

Sturgeon’s SNP ran in the 2021 Scottish general election on a promise to hold a legal referendum once the Covid crisis subsides.