A PLAN B to secure independence if the next Prime Minister continues to block a new referendum has widespread support among Yes supporters, according to a poll carried out by the politicians behind the proposal.
Angus MacNeil and Chris McEleny have submitted a motion to the SNP’s annual conference stating that if a vote on independence does not take place by autumn 2020 then a pro-independence majority of Scottish seats achieved at the next election, whether it is Holyrood or Westminster, would be a mandate for negotiations between the Scottish and the UK Government to bring about independence. The plan received significant attention when it was published in the Sunday National at the weekend and members of a SNP conference committee will consider whether it should appear on the provisional agenda for event.
After the Sunday National unveiled the plan, MacNeil, the SNP MP for the Western Isles, and McEleny, SNP group leader at Inverclyde Council, carried out a Twitter poll to gather the level of interest in the plan. Some 82% of the people responding agreed that the proposal should be included in the agenda for debate at the SNP’s annual conference in October.
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Nicola Sturgeon has signalled her intention to hold a second independence referendum in the second half of next year. Legislation is going through Holyrood setting out the rules of the vote, but she has yet to request the necessary powers to hold a legally binding referendum.
MacNeil and McEleny came up with their alternative plan after longstanding opposition by the Prime Minister Theresa May to agree to a new referendum.
Tory leadership hopefuls Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are also both opposed to a second independence vote and the temporary transfer of powers from Westminster to Holyrood under a Section 30 order.
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MacNeil said: “Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are signalling that they will flat out refuse an independence referendum even though there is a democratic mandate to hold one.
“Scotland can’t accept a situation that we can’t ever determine our own future because all the UK Government has to do is keep saying no to a section 30 order."
McEleny added: “The feedback and poll shows that there’s considerable support for what we are proposing, I’m hopeful we are at least allowed to debate the merits of taking the initiative, and our destiny back into our own hands. The Tories are already running scared of this plan as they know that their consistent, undemocratic opposition, to the mandate of the Scottish Government, to give people in Scotland a choice about their future, is not sustainable.”
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