SCOTTISH Government minister Christina McKelvie predicted that “independence is coming soon” today as she stakes her claim in the 2021 election.

The Older People and Equalities Minister wants to run again next year – and says an SNP majority will make indyref2 “unavoidable”.

While 14 of the Scottish Parliament’s current SNP cohort have said they’ll stand down at the poll, McKelvie, who was first elected in 2007, has confirmed she’ll seek re-selection as the candidate for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.

Paying tribute to the “countless activists” in the independence cause, the former trade unionist says the Yes movement has “never been closer” to achieving its goal.

She stated: “The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how important it is that decisions about Scotland’s future are made in Scotland. The last seven polls have shown that Scottish independence is fast becoming the established position of the people of Scotland.”

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McKelvie, whose partner is SNP depute leader Keith Brown, also hit out at Boris Johnson’s Internal Market Bill, described by the Labour-run Welsh government as “an attack on democracy” that risk “the future of the union by stealing powers from devolved administrations”.

Referencing the SNP’s historic 1967 Hamilton by-election win by Winnie Ewing, she stated: “We must work together and focus all our efforts on the election in 2021 to achieve this future. 

“By putting Scotland’s right to choose at the heart of that campaign we can turn the popular support for independence into an unavoidable demand for a second referendum. A referendum we will win.

“Let us honour the foundation that Winnie Ewing countless other activists have laid for us. We can achieve the dream that they have worked so hard for. Independence is coming and it is coming soon.”