Madrid, Sep 20 (IANS) Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Friday celebrated the result of Thursday's Scottish independence referendum in which Scotland voted to stay part of Britain.

In Thursday's vote for the Scottish independence referendum, about 55.3 percent of the Scots voted against independence while 44.7 percent voted in favour, and the turnout was 84.59 percent, according to the final result.

However, with Spain's Catalan region hoping to hold a similar vote on Nov 9, the Scottish result also has significance in Spain, as not only Catalan, but also Basque nationalists have been following events in Scotland closely, hoping it could help open the doors for them to break away from Spain.

Although Rajoy insisted the Catalan referendum cannot take place because it would be illegal. He was content with the result of the vote in Scotland and released a short pre-recorded statement before Friday's cabinet meeting.

"We celebrate the fact that Scotland is still a part of Britain and we are happy that they will continue contributing as it has done until now to its greatness, cohesion and developments," Rajoy added.