Fate of Scottish referendum to be decided on Tuesday

Scotland's parliament said it will resume its independence referendum debate on Tuesday after proceedings were suspended following the attack on Britain's national Parliament at Westminster.

"The debate on "Scotland's Choice" will recommence on Tuesday at 2.20 pm," the Scottish parliament's media office said in a statement.

The session was suspended after a lone-wolf attacker killed three people and injured 40 in London. The attacker was also shot dead.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is seeking authority from the Scottish parliament for a second referendum, to be held in late 2018 or early 2019.

Earlier, Sturgeon had accused Theresa May of sealing the fate of the United Kingdom after the prime minister rejected her demand for a second Scottish independence referendum before the Brexit talks conclude.

The first minister said May's stance was "completely outrageous and unacceptable", hours after the prime minister had insisted that "now is not the time" for the referendum that the SNP had hoped to stage between autumn 2019 and spring 2019.

Sturgeon said: "It's an argument for independence, really, in a nutshell, that Westminster thinks it has got the right to block the democratically elected mandate of the Scottish government and the majority in the Scottish parliament. History may look back on today and see it as the day the fate of the union was sealed."

Scotland — one of the UK's four nations along with England, Wales and Northern Ireland — voted to keep its EU membership last June, but will leave the EU because the UK as a whole voted to do so. This means Scotland must have a fresh choice on its future, Sturgeon's nationalists argue, if its wishes are not respected as part of the Brexit negotiations.