THE best way to boot out Unionist councillors is to rank them last in the council elections – even if it induces “full-on dry boak”, a senior SNP MP has said.

Writing in The National today, the SNP’s longest-serving MP Pete Wishart broke with the official party line by advising voters to rank all candidates on their ballot papers.

The SNP have been criticised for campaign literature which advised the electorate to “only” vote for them and “no other party”.

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But Wishart has urged voters to put a number against the Tories and other pro-Union parties rather than leaving them blank in a strategy dubbed “Vote Until You Boak”.

It originated from Nationalist parties in Northern Ireland who successfully used the single transferable vote (STV) system to their advantage. STV is one of Scotland’s voting systems and is used at the council elections.

He said he “will reach for the liver salts” after placing a number beside the Tory candidate because it was “as close as we get to being able to register a vote against them”.

He wrote: “In my case after the SNP I will vote for candidates that support independence and our Government.

“So that will be the Greens, Indy supporting independents and maybe one of these small number of Labour candidates that are Indy supporting.

“Then I will vote for any fringe anti-SNP ‘Indy harming’ independence candidates from parties such as Alba.

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“On the nausea scale at this stage, my stomach may well be starting to churn as I put a ranking next to parties who bring such damage and division to our cause.

“I know that many SNP voters will find it hard to rank Alba candidates after the tirades of abuse and disgusting things their activists say on social media about our First Minister, but it is important that you rank them before the unionists.”

Alba were among those who criticised the SNP over a leaflet sent out in West Fife which told voters to only vote for Nicola Sturgeon’s party.

Chris McEleny, the party’s general secretary, said he was “bitterly disappointed to see the SNP are actively encouraging their supporters not to vote for other pro-indy parties”.

He added: “Considering this is STV, this will actively help get Unionists elected.”

Martin Keatings, a pro-Yes independent in the area said: “Even a passive approach of just ‘SNP 1 and 2’ as they have adopted previously would have been fair enough, but a clear statement of ‘and for no other party’ sends the wrong signal at a time when the movement should be showing solidarity."