Cameron resigned after the Brexit vote, replaced by Theresa May, who repeatedly declared that “now is not the time” for another referendum.
One of her arguments was that it was too early because the Scottish people did not yet know what the outcome of leaving the EU would be.
When Boris Johnson entered Number 10 in 2019, he also rejected the call, harking back to the “once in a generation” description of the earlier vote.
During her brief tenure as prime minister in 2022, Liz Truss described Sturgeon as an “attention seeker” who she planned to ignore.
Rishi Sunak had taken over by the time the UK Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish government did not have the power to hold an independence referendum without the consent of the UK government.
And he argued that there were “more pressing issues” that the Scottish people wanted politicians to focus on.
After Labour came to power at Westminster in 2024, Sir Keir Starmer took a similar line, saying it was “not a priority” and he could not envisage one happening while he was prime minister.