Scottish first minister says a May majority means new independence push

LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Scotland's first minister, John Swinney, said on Sunday he would call for another independence referendum if his SNP won a majority in May's Scottish parliament elections, a result he added could end Keir Starmer's premiership.

Swinney, leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party which has governed Scotland for nearly 19 years, appealed to independence-minded voters to hand his party a big majority in May, when Wales will also vote in Welsh parliament elections and some voters in England will take part in local polls.

In a referendum in 2014, Scots rejected ending the more than 300-year-old union with England by 55% to 45%, but nationalists argue that the vote for Brexit two years later, which the majority of Scottish voters opposed, changed everything.

Asked by Sky News whether winning a majority in May would be a green light to demanding another independence referendum, Swinney said: "Yes ... I am being straightforward ... if people in Scotland want Scotland to become independent the SNP has got to do really well in this forthcoming election."

Britain's top court has ruled that the Scottish government cannot hold a second referendum on independence without approval from the British parliament, but Swinney said he believed Starmer would not be prime minister by the end of the year.

"The United Kingdom is allegedly a partnership of equals, so Scotland has a democratic right to decide our own future and secondly if I win a majority ... I don't think Keir Starmer will be the prime minister."

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Editing by Louise Heavens)