Scottish leader signals she will call for another independence vote

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon offered her strongest signal yet that she'll call a vote on independence if she doesn't like the Brexit terms that Prime Minister Theresa May negotiates.

Closing her Scottish National Party's conference in Glasgow on Saturday, Sturgeon said she's working on proposals to keep Scotland inside the European Union's single market even if the rest of the U.K. leaves.

"If the Tory government rejects these efforts, if it insists on taking Scotland down a path that hurts our economy, costs jobs, lowers our living standards and damages our reputation as an open, welcoming, diverse country, then be in no doubt: Scotland must have the ability to choose a better future," Sturgeon said to applause. "And I will make sure that Scotland gets that chance."

While hinting at a rerun of 2014's independence referendum is popular with supporters of a sovereign Scotland, the first minister's rhetoric risks taking her to a place where it's hard for her not to announce such a vote. Sturgeon's overarching strategy has been not to go for independence again until opinion-poll evidence means she's sure she can win the referendum.

Speaking to a meeting at the conference earlier on Saturday, External Affairs Minister Fiona Hyslop said the Scottish government's tactics are aimed at putting political pressure on May "to go for what we call the least worst option in terms of relationships to the European Union."

Hyslop warned, though, that it was impossible to predict how events will play out. "You can't game-plan this," she said. "You can't determine exactly where we might be at some point in the future."

The SNP leader used her speech to declare herself the main opposition to May's Conservative government, setting a course that's designed to show Scotland is moving in a different direction from the rest of the U.K.

"We are in a completely new era," the first minister said. "And as the world around us changes, we must ensure that Scotland remains the progressive, internationalist, communitarian country that the majority of us living here want it be. The choice we face has never been so stark. The primary contest of ideas in our country is now between the SNP and the hard-right Tories."

Sturgeon also announced moves to boost trade, including setting up an office in Berlin and doubling the number of Scottish investment-agency staff in mainland Europe, saying that "we need to tell our European friends that Scotland is open for ­business."

Setting herself up for a battle with May will serve Sturgeon in future elections: The SNP's pitch to voters is that it is best placed to fight for Scotland's interests. But it will also serve the long-term goal of independence.

Her best chance of winning a vote to break away from the U.K. rests in persuading her fellow Scots that their country is moving away from the path being taken by the rest of ­Britain. To justify calling another referendum soon, she also needs to successfully argue that the country's situation has fundamentally changed since then.

Brexit is an asset in both of those arguments: Scotland voted to stay in the E.U., but as speaker after speaker has reminded the conference, it is being taken out of the bloc by the votes of the English.