Edinburgh — Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday postponed plans for a second independence referendum, after a British general election in which her secessionist party suffered major losses. "We will not introduce the legislation for an independence referendum immediately," the Scottish National Party (SNP) leader told Scotland’s parliament in Edinburgh. Sturgeon said she would "reset" the timetable for holding a referendum by spring 2019, when Britain is expected to leave the European Union. She said she would look at the plan again in autumn 2018 when the outlines of the deal that Britain is to strike in the Brexit negotiations become clear. The June 8 election "has re-opened the possibility, however narrow, of averting a hard Brexit and retaining membership of the single market", she said. Scotland voted by 55% against independence in a 2014 referendum. But Sturgeon had argued that the Brexit referendum last year — in which Scotland voted to stay in the EU but Brita...
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