ONLY a third “home rule” option will end the deadlock over Scotland’s place in Britain, campaigners warned today after the Supreme Court ruled Holyrood does not have the right to stage an independence referendum.

The court’s president Lord Reed said it had unanimously judged that legislation for a second independence referendum would relate to “reserved matters” and was therefore outside the powers of the Scottish Parliament.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she respected the ruling as an interpretation of existing law — but “a law that doesn’t allow Scotland to choose our own future without Westminster consent exposes as myth any notion of the UK as a voluntary partnership.”