Only UK parliament can approve a Scottish independence poll, court told

Pro-Scottish independence campaigners outside the supreme court in London. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Judges sitting in the UK’s highest court have been told Westminster is the ultimate authority on Scotland’s future because the issue of Scottish independence is of “critical importance” to the future of the UK.

Sir James Eadie KC, a senior lawyer acting for the UK government, said the union between Scotland and England was “the constitutional foundation of the modern British state”, and mattered to everyone in the UK.