Scotland votes 'No' to independence

Scotland has voted to stay in the United Kingdom after voters decisively rejected independence. With the results in from all 32 council areas, the 'No' side polled 2,001,926 votes to 1,617,989 for 'Yes'.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond called for unity and urged the unionist parties to deliver on more powers.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said he was delighted the UK would remain together and said the commitments on extra powers would be honoured.

Cameron said the three main unionist parties at Westminster would now follow through with their pledge to deliver more powers to the Scottish parliament.

"We will ensure that those commitments are honoured in full," he said.

He announced that Lord Smith of Kelvin, who led Glasgow's staging of the Commonwealth Games, would oversee the process to take forward the commitments, with new powers over tax, spending and welfare to be agreed by November, and draft legislation published by January.

The prime minister also acknowledged that the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland must have a bigger say over their affairs.

And he promised a resolution to the West Lothian question - the fact that Scottish MPs can vote on English issues at Westminster.

"In Wales there are proposals to give the Welsh government and assembly more powers and I want Wales to be at the heart of the debate on how to make the United Kingdom work for all our nations," he said.

The pound hit a two-year high against the euro and a two-week high against the US dollar, as Scotland voted against independence. Royal Bank of Scotland said it would keep its headquarters in Scotland following the 'No' vote.

The result became a mathematical certainty at 06:08, as the returning officer in Fife announced a comfortable No vote.

Shortly afterwards, Salmond said he accepted the defeat and called for national unity.

He said the referendum and the high turnout had been a "triumph for the democratic process" and promised to keep his pledge in the Edinburgh Agreement which paved the way for the referendum to respect the result and work for the benefit of Scotland and the United Kingdom.

Share this article: