EDINBURGH, Scotland — Scotland’s devolved parliament voted to demand the U.K. government hand over the power to hold a fresh independence referendum as First Minister John Swinney seeks to build on a recent election win and take advantage of political turmoil in London.

The move is largely symbolic, with the U.K. government continuing to reject calls for another vote on independence. But it highlights how Scotland’s constitutional future has returned to the core of British politics after the Scottish National Party and the Greens, who both support Scotland leaving the U.K., secured their largest ever pro-independence majority. The motion passed by 72 votes to 55.

The SNP won a fifth consecutive term in office earlier this month, extending more than two decades of nationalist dominance in Edinburgh. That was less than two years after a scandal over the party’s finances and a landslide victory in the U.K. election for Labour had threatened to undermine the SNP.

“Today is the start of a process that I believe will lead Westminster to say yes to a referendum, and Scotland yes to independence,” Swinney told lawmakers in Edinburgh on Tuesday. Westminster’s control of Scottish energy resources, for example, has been “an unmitigated disaster” and “the old ways” of the U.K. government have failed Scotland, he said.

A spokesperson for the prime minister’s office said the U.K. government doesn’t support independence or another referendum on the issue. Instead, Swinney’s administration “has work to do using the powers that it has to get the basics right,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Swinney’s renewed independence push comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure after local election results triggered unrest within Labour. Senior party figures have openly discussed potential successors, with Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting among names floated amid fears Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K. poses a growing threat to Labour and the union.

Nationalist leaders elsewhere in the U.K. have also sought to capitalize on Westminster instability. In Wales, Plaid Cymru ended Labour’s century-long dominance to form a pro-independence government, while Sinn Fein continues to push for Irish reunification in Northern Ireland.

Scottish nationalists argue the rise of Reform U.K. and English nationalism strengthens the case for independence and a potential return to the European Union. Recent polling suggests support for independence has edged above 50%, though Westminster insists the 2014 referendum — when Scots voted 55% to 45% to remain in the union — settled the issue for a generation.

For Swinney, Tuesday’s vote was intended to shift the political focus back toward Scotland’s constitutional future and away from the controversies that have engulfed his own party in recent years. Instead, it comes against the backdrop of renewed scrutiny over the SNP’s own internal turmoil.

Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive and estranged husband of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, on Monday pleaded guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 ($540,000) from party funds during a 12-year period. Prosecutors said Murrell used party money, intended for political activities, to finance a lavish personal lifestyle, including the purchase of luxury goods, vehicles and a motor home.

Sturgeon herself was cleared of wrongdoing and has said she had no knowledge of Murrell’s actions. The scandal, though, threatens to once again cast a shadow over the independence movement that Sturgeon once dominated.

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