NICOLA Sturgeon was being urged to announce the date for indyref2 after Boris Johnson unveiled plans yesterday to suspend Parliament.
The move followed comments from Angus MacNeil, who criticised the Prime Minister’s decision to prorogue Parliament to stop opposition parties and rebel Tory MPs preventing the UK from crashing out of the EU without a deal in October.
But the SNP MP appeared to take a swipe at his own party leader for not stepping up independence plans.
“Boris Johnson presses his effective nuclear button to #prorogue parliament for a Hard Brexit,” MacNeil wrote on Twitter.
“What I don’t get is 1) any MPs still not considering equally strong weapon of #RevokeArticle50? 2) & SNP not having #indyref2 democratic mandate in play or very least on airwaves?”
READ MORE: SNP rejects fresh conference debate bid for indyref2 Plan B
MacNeil, along with ally and the SNP opposition leader at Inverclyde Council Chris McEleny, have been behind attempts to get the SNP to sanction an alternative route to independence.
They want the party to approve plans which would see a winning independence majority at either Holyrood or Westminster election provide a mandate for the Scottish Government to begin negotiations with the UK Government to make Scotland independent. However, their proposals were rejected for consideration at the SNP conference in October.
McEleny renewed his Plan B calls yesterday as he urged the First Minister to announce the date of a new independence vote.
“The minute Boris Johnson announces he’s proroguing Parliament the Scottish Government should announce the date of an independence referendum,” he said.
“And if a general election is called on the back of Scotland being taking out of the EU through such democratic butchery, a vote at that election should be a vote to commence negotiations on Scottish independence.”
The First Minister has signalled she plans to hold a second referendum in the second half of next year and has said she is considering accelerating those plans as the prospect of a No-Deal Brexit increases following Johnson’s appointment as Prime Minister.
Legislation is due to be passed in the Scottish Parliament setting out the rules of a referendum, but Holyrood needs the temporary transfer of powers from Westminster to hold a vote.
Ahead of the 2014 referendum, this transfer of power under Section 30 of the Scotland Act was agreed by David Cameron and Alex Salmond.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon: This was the day independence became inevitable
Early this month, the First Minister hit out at the demands for an alternative route to independence.
“Why should I be talking about the alternatives to doing it the right way? It’s the people who are trying to block it from doing it the right way who should be under pressure,” she told an event at the Edinburgh Fringe.
“What on earth is democratic about any Westminster Government saying that even though there is a democratic mandate, even though the Scottish Parliament has voted for this, that they have the right to block it?
“And particularly just now when that undemocratic, unsustainable position has started to crumble. We’ve seen it from John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn, even within the Tories, we are starting to see them ‘ah well, maybe if they’ve got a majority in 20...’.
“So let’s just keep the pressure there. So we can have the referendum in the right way. In the gold standard way and then Scotland can become an independent country.”
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