A large majority of the Catalan regional parliament has voted in favour of a law that legislators say will allow it to hold a non-binding vote on independence from Spain in November.

106 delegates voted for the law with just 28 opposing it. Support for a poll has been growing recently and given extra impetus after the referendum in Scotland.

“The Spanish Prime Minister, Rajoy, should do the same thing that the British Prime Minister David Cameron did. That is to say he could allow the consultation”, said the leader of the Catalan National Assembly, Carme Forcadell.

However the leader of the Partido Popular in the region, Alicia Sanchez Camacho, took a different view.

“We believe that today is a sad day for democracy for Spaniards. A law that is clearly unconstitutional has been approved to hold an illegal referendum to ask Catalans if they want to break away from the rest of Spain”.

It is an issue being pushed hard by the President of Catalonia, Artur Mas, who has a lot of support for his stance.

“We will vote”, chanted his supporters outside the Catalan parliament, but for the moment at least, such a vote will not be recognised by the government in Madrid.