“THE Union is not a prison”, a pro-EU commentator has insisted as he made the case for a second Scottish independence referendum.

Jonathan Lis, the deputy director of pro-EU think tank British Influence, featured on Sky News last night arguing there’s a strong mandate for indyref2.

He said: “I really don’t think that you need to be pro-independence to have sympathy with Sturgeon’s position.

“The Scottish people have overwhelmingly voted – well they’ve elected a majority of MSPs who support an independence referendum.

“You can’t change the goal posts and say that it has to be a numerical majority of voters.

“You know, by that logic then we’d now have a referendum on Brexit because more than 50% of voters endorsed remain or revoke parties in the 2019 election.

“That’s not how parliamentary democracy works.”

READ MORE: Michael Gove says Westminster won't take Scottish Government to court over indyref2

Lis argued that the Scottish people have spoken by electing a majority Yes government, in the SNP’s fourth consecutive term in power.

“There’s now a majority for an independence referendum, I don’t know how many times the Scottish people can ask for this.

The National: Jonathan Lis made the case for indyref2 on Sky News.Jonathan Lis made the case for indyref2 on Sky News.

“It’s now been, I think the SNP’s been elected four times in a national election with this policy.

“If the people have asked for something it’s a duty to give it,” he continued.

Lis insisted it’s not for Boris Johnston’s Conservatives to instruction the Scottish Government on what their priorities should be.

“It’s not for the Conservatives to say ‘you should be concentrating on Covid’, it’s incredibly condescending," he said.

He argued that the founding principle of the union is mutual consent and if the Scottish people no longer consent, that must be respected.

Lis continued: "The question is really – why does the will of the people only matter when they’re English?

“The Union is not a prison. The founding principle of the Union was it’s by mutual consent.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon 'wouldn't rule out' indyref2 by Spring 2022

“If you’re now telling the Scottish people that there’s no legal means to succeed then that is a very different kind of Union. It’s one in which the Scottish people are tied to the UK whether they like it or not.

“Either the Scottish people have self-determination, or they haven’t, and if they haven’t then it’s very reasonable for them to ask why they haven’t,” Lis concluded.

The impassioned discussion provoked an outpouring of support on Twitter, including from Humza Yousaf.

Yousaf tweeted: “This is well worth a listen. Spot on.”

Political commentator and National columnist James Kelly said: “Was anyone watching Sky News just there? Don’t know who that guy was, but he was incredible.”

A third person said: “It’s a long time since a nail was so firmly struck on the head.”