THE SNP will be “slaughtered” if its Holyrood election manifesto does not contain a commitment to a second independence referendum, a leading figure in the party has said.
The MP issued the warning after Pete Wishart, the SNP’s shadow leader of the House of Commons said he and most of the party’s 115,000 members are “relatively relaxed” about not seeking a mandate for a vote on self-determination in May.
Wishart told The National’s sister paper the Sunday Herald the “No” vote in September 2014 should be respected and that the forthcoming election was about the SNP’s record in power, about its stewardship of public services and about which party should be in government in Edinburgh.
But Wishart’s analysis was disputed yesterday by a colleague at Westminster, who pointed out independence was the SNP’s cause.
“It depends how indy2 is presented,” the SNP MP, who did not wish to be named, told The National. “I don’t think we can ignore it. We would get slaughtered and deservedly so.”
He added: “I think I speak for the majority. We only need to reiterate our cause is independence and when the right time arrives we will put it to the people of Scotland to decide. To say nothing, well I just can’t imagine that.”
He said the subject of whether a second independence referendum should be in the Holyrood manifesto had not been discussed by SNP MPs, but he suspected there were many in the group who had been involved in the Yes campaign who would embrace the prospect of a second referendum.
“We have never discussed it,” he added. “But I take my guidance from how many SNP MPs ran YES campaigns.”
Wishart told the Sunday Herald: “This election will be about stewardship of public services and whether people have confidence in the SNP. As we go forward, this Parliament is about who’s in the best position to be the Scottish Government, that’s what this really is going to be about.”
He continued: “We’ve had that referendum, we got a decisive result, and we said that would be a once-in-a-generation referendum. Unless something significant and substantial happens in the next few years, I think that’s something that we have to respect and observe.
“That’s why I’m relatively relaxed about a manifesto commitment, about not having it included, even though every one of our manifestos have up until this point. I would imagine that would be the majority opinion of the party.”
SNP strategists have indicated that Nicola Sturgeon should wait until support for independence has stood at 60 per cent for a year before calling a second referendum on independence, and yesterday SNP MEP Alyn Smith said he did not detect “a huge appetite” for one among voters.
He told the Sunday Herald: “I remain absolutely committed to independence. The question is the timing. I don’t detect a huge appetite among the voters for a second referendum.”
Responding to the debate, a SNP spokesman said: “The SNP will set out its position in its manifesto which is yet to be finalised.”
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