Campaign calls for choice on Queen as head of state

THE Queen should be removed as the head of state if Scotland votes for independence, anti-monarchist campaigners will claim at a conference this weekend.

THE Queen should be removed as the head of state if Scotland votes for independence, anti-monarchist campaigners will claim at a conference this weekend.

Campaign group Republic is holding its annual event in Edinburgh for the first time, with a theme of “Yes or No, the Monarchy Must Go”.

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The SNP has said the Queen would remain as Scotland’s head of state under independence and has ruled out a referendum on scrapping the monarchy.

However, Republic, which is not taking a position on independence, has called for Scots to be given a choice of head of state in the event of a Yes vote.

The group will set out the case for scrapping the monarchy in an independent Scotland or for a “united British Republic” if the No campaign wins.

Republic chief executive Graham Smith said: “The monarchy is wrong for Britain, it will be wrong for a newly independent nation. If Scotland votes Yes in September it would be absurd to claim independence on one bended-knee to a monarch living in another country’s capital.”

“If the result is Yes then Scotland needs to make a clean break – a nation is not sovereign while it has its head of state chosen by genetic lottery in another country.”

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