DESPITE slamming the party leadership over its EU stance, Jim Sillars yesterday said he has “no reason” to leave the SNP.
The party’s former deputy leader has been vocal in backing a Brexit and yesterday joined former UK trade minister Nigel Griffiths, Scottish coordinator of the Labour Leave campaign, to address journalists on the impact of continued EU membership on Scottish public services.
Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly said that any Brexit taken against the will of Scots voters could be a trigger for a second independence referendum.
But yesterday Sillars said this claim “doesn’t stand up to analysis” and called Sturgeon and other senior figures “incapable” of scrutinising the European Union.
The veteran campaigner for independence, who left Alex Salmond’s SNP leadership team in 1992, said the party has never since “submitted any treaty of the EU to any critical appraisal”.
Sillars accused Salmond of giving a “paean of praise” to an “undemocratic organisation run by an unelected elite” and called Sturgeon’s plan to keep an independent Scotland within the organisation “ a contradiction”.
Speaking in Edinburgh, he said: “The statement that Nicola has made, that if Scotland votes to Remain and the rest vote to Leave can trigger a referendum, does not stand up to analysis.
“That could only be the case if in the recent manifesto she had asked for a specific mandate if that happened, and she didn’t.”
He went on: “The SNP don’t seem to be able to answer the point made by Neil Findlay to Fiona Hyslop in last Thursday’s debate when he asked Fiona the question that many people are actually asking me.
“Isn’t it a contradiction to want to be independent of England in a country of 60 million people where we have nine per cent representation in a sovereign parliament, to then want to be part of a larger union of 28 member states where our vote in the European Parliament is one per cent and we would have very little influence?”
He continued: “The SNP seems incapable of analysing what is actually happening inside the EU.
“If they made an application to join the EU as an independent state, they would find themselves rebuffed ... as they were rebuffed in 2014. The SNP seems to have had some sort of love affair with the EU and they are so entranced by it that they are incapable of looking at it and seeing it for what it is – an undemocratic organisation run by an unelected elite.”
On to his continued membership of the party, Sillars – who backed Rise at the recent Holyrood elections – said: “I think it is healthy for any political party if the voices of dissent are heard against the positions of the leadership. I see no reason for me to leave the SNP whatsoever.”
Last night Humza Yousaf, director of the SNP In Europe campaign, said: “The Leave campaign continue to miss the fundamental point – each of the EU’s 28 Member States are independent nations who have chosen to work together for the common good.
“Independence and interdependence go hand in hand in the 21st century, something underlined by the fact that many of the EU’s current members have only become independent in recent decades.
“While we recognise the EU is not perfect, and have set out a number of proposals for reform, we believe that the benefits of the EU are significant – that is why we are campaigning positively for Scotland, and the rest of the UK, to remain in the EU.
“However, if Scotland were to be taken out of Europe against our will it is likely that this would lead to increased support for a second referendum.”
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