THE SNP have said plans for their next conference will be notified to party members “very soon”.
Details of the next gathering for SNP members have yet to be announced, although spring conference season is well underway.
So far the Scottish Greens and Labour have held their gatherings, with the Scottish Conservatives conference taking place this weekend.
A spokesman for the SNP said the party was concentrating on the upcoming council elections.
He said: “Our focus is on the election on Thursday 5 May, and our conference plans will be notified to SNP members very soon.”
The last in-person SNP spring conference was held in 2019 at the EICC in Edinburgh.
In 2020, the event was delayed to June due to the pandemic, before the party decided to it call off completely. The SNP then held its annual conference online in November.
Last year the autumn conference in September also took place virtually.
At the SNP’s annual conference in November 2021, which was also an online event, Nicola Sturgeon told her party a new Scottish independence campaign would “begin in earnest” this spring ahead of a 2023 vote.
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She told delegates in her closing address: “Next year, covid permitting, as we emerge from winter into spring, the campaign to persuade a majority of people in Scotland that our future will be more secure as an independent nation will resume in earnest.
“In the course of next year, I will initiate the process necessary to enable a referendum before the end of 2023.”
Earlier this month SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford (below) appeared to suggest that the timetable for a second independence referendum should be flexible due to the Ukraine conflict.
He said: “I want that referendum to take place in a timely manner. I want us to be able to execute the mandate that we have.
“To those that are expressing a desire for us to get on with our job, of course, we will do so, but we have to be mindful of where we are.”
However, the First Minister subsequently said: “My plans and my thinking hasn’t changed.”
She added: “We, right now, should be reminded, above all else, how lucky we are to live in a free democracy where we can put forward our case for political constitutional change, argue that case passionately, whatever our views on that might be, and trust people to decide.”
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