THE Scottish Government has "many options" it could use to push for a second independence referendum if Boris Johnson continues to deny Section 30 powers be devolved, the Constitutional Relations Secretary Michael Russell has said.
Russell spoke out after the Prime Minister rejected Nicola Sturgeon's request for Holyrood to be given the legal power to stage indyref2.
The Tory leader claimed allowing a second Scottish independence referendum would lead to continued "political stagnation".
Russell accused the Prime Minister of ignoring the wishes of Scottish voters, who in last month's General Election increased the number of pro-independence MPs to 48 from 35.
READ MORE: Boris rejects indyref2 – what happens now?
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, Russell said: "I think you can either have democracy or you can have dictatorship, you can't have both.
"If Boris Johnson wants to be a dictator that simply says 'other people's votes don't matter, Scotland's doesn't matter, Scotland isn't a nation', that is a decision which cannot hold in my view, because it goes so much against the views of the people of Scotland.
"Even those who are not in favour of independence, we know are in favour of saying it is right that if the people of Scotland vote for something they get their chance to choose. That is all this is about."
Sturgeon has refused to rule out taking legal action in a bid to win the right to hold a fresh independence ballot.
Russell said SNP ministers had "many options" but added he did "not want to go into them".
"As we move forward, they will all become clear," he added.
READ MORE: Michael Russell: 'I intend to deliver' indyref2 this year
Yesterday SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC warned there is "no shortcut to an independent Scotland through litigation".
She said the courts could "play a role in determining the limits of Holyrood's powers" but that the "answer lies in political strategy and reaching out beyond the political tribes".
Sturgeon has already said she will ask the Scottish Parliament to endorse her call for another independence referendum in a vote in the coming weeks.
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