THE Yes side can be confident of winning a second independence referendum next year, the newly selected SNP candidate for a key constituency has said.
Anne McLaughlin has been chosen by the party to win her old seat of Glasgow North East at the next General Election which is expected to take place in the coming months.
Announcing her successful selection bid in The National, McLaughlin, who was a MP from 2015 to 2017 and a MSP from 2009 to 2011, said she was delighted to get the SNP’s nomination as its candidate to oust Labour’s Paul Sweeney who took the seat from her in 2017 with a majority of just 242 votes.
“I believe there will be a referendum next year and I have full confidence we can win. It is not sustainable for either the Tories or Labour to continue blocking it,” she said.
“Out on the doorsteps I come across a lot of voters who are moving from No to Yes. They may have moved initially because they oppose Scotland being taken out of the EU or they can’t stand Boris Johnson, but once they have made that move they then see the positive reasons for backing independence, they are saying we can do so much better than this. It’s brilliant to hear the journey they have been on.”
She added: “Last night I spoke to someone who voted No and then voted remain and now thought Scotland should be given the chance to be independent.
“He told me ‘I can’t allow what’s happening to my country to keep happening’. And he told me ‘I can’t be waiting any longer for Labour to get into power and maybe do something differently or maybe not.”
McLaughlin added that she believes EU leaders would welcome an independent Scotland back into the European Union.
“The attitude in Europe is now that they recognise the unfairness that Scotland voted to remain but is being taken out regardless and they recognise that we want to play a full part in the EU and that therefore they will do everything they can to ease our passage back in,” she said.
Asked how confident she is of ousting Sweeney, who has a high public profile in his roles as shadow Scottish secretary, McLaughlin said: “He is a majority of just 242, so we have a real opportunity to take the seat again and we are already campaigning hard.”
She added: “This week I was out six days and I have noticed a change particularly since the summer. People are exasperated, they can take no more.”
Since losing her Westminster seat McLaughlin has remained busy as a SNP activist and her work has included leading an action group in a fight to solve problems left behind when homeowners were miss-sold energy-saving measures by Green Deal firm HELMS.
Thousands of people across Scotland were left with debt after signing up for new energy-efficient boilers, insulation and solar panels with HELMS. Customers were told the energy efficiency improvements were part of the UK Government’s Green Deal policy, which was launched in 2013 and scrapped two years later. HELMS, which was on the UK Government’s Green Deal approved list, told customers their energy-saving improvements would come at no cost to them and would save them money on bills while helping the environment. In fact, customers ended up with long finance agreements they weren’t made aware of and in many cases higher bills.
McLaughlin secured a win for former constituents in August when Glasgow City Council waived the need them to individually get retrospective planning permission for cladding installed under the scheme. “The council have said okay, you can do a retrospective group application. I tell you when I told [the group] at a public meeting of the progress, some of them were crying with the relief because they’ve been fighting this for years and were worried sick,” she said at the time.
Opposition parties are expected to push for a General Election if an extension to Brexit is secured and implemented at the end of this month.
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