IF Scotland wants independence it “has to vote for it”, an SNP candidate has said as the Holyrood 2026 election looms over the horizon.
First Minister John Swinney has centered his election campaign on achieving a majority of SNP MSPs in the Scottish Parliament, insisting that it will force Westminster into agreeing to a second referendum – as Alex Salmond’s historic win in 2011 delivered the 2014 vote.
With scores of MSPs from the SNP benches standing down at the election, there is a new cohort waiting in the wings hoping to take their places. The National spoke to five candidates from across Scotland, who are not currently members of the Scottish Parliament, to discuss how they will put focus on independence in their campaigns.
This election contest is set to be long and arduous, with the political landscape in Scotland shifting onto new ground.
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Nigel Farage’s Reform are rising in the polls, the LibDems throwing the kitchen sink at Highland constituencies in an attempt to build on their tiny number of MSPs, and Scottish Labour caught between trying to attack the SNP’s 18-year record while defending Keir Starmer’s Westminster Government. The Scottish Tories are facing a wipe out, and will attempt to shift further to the right in a bid to stem the drain of voters (and politicians) shifting over to Farage’s camp.
And on the left, the Scottish Greens could return a record number of MSPs, but if Your Party can coordinate fast enough to get candidates in place, they could pose a risk to the current five party Holyrood consensus as well.
So how, then, will candidates cut through the noise while addressing rightful concerns of the public on the NHS, the cost of living crisis, sky-high energy bills, and what can sometimes feel like an endless list of problems.
Among the SNP’s candidates, there are eight former MPs, who lost their seat at the 2024 General Election who are contesting Holyrood constituencies.
Alison Thewliss, who is running for Glasgow Central, insisted that independence is still a talking point on the doorstep during canvassing.
She argued that in 2014 there was a sense of hope around the possibilities of independence, but after over a decade of disastrous Westminster Governments – both Tory and Labour – there is now a feeling of “desperation”.
“That thirst for independence has not gone away,” she told The National.
Thewliss added: “They're seeing that really far right rhetoric, they see the Labour government that's been elected on a mandate of change and doing nothing any different than the Tories and, in fact, making things worse.
“That's quite a different tone, I think, in terms of how people are feeling about independence.”
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The former MP admitted that conversations can sometimes get bogged down in process. Holyrood’s Constitution committee is currently undertaking a probe into the legal mechanisms for an independence referendum, much to the ire of its Tory members.
“I think there's a lot of over complication that some people like to put on this,” she added.
“But for me it's as simple as if you want it, you’ve got to vote for it.”
For Eilidh Munro, she believes Swinney’s approach has brought “refocusing” and a “sense of urgency” to the party.
Munro was selected to run for Skye, Lochaber, and Badenoch after Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes made the shock announcement she would be standing down earlier this year.
“I think there is that feeling now that we need independence more than we have ever before, particularly with the way England is leaning and heading politically, and we don't really want Scotland to copy that,” she explained.
The Skye, Lochaber, and Badenoch constituency is a top target for the LibDems, but Munro argues that the party has “changed massively” since their previous, almost long-forgotten, dominance in the Highlands.
“They're very much a UK party now, and actually, the ones in Scotland are much more right wing than the English version,” she added.
“But people in the Highlands do want more than a party, they want someone who's going to stand up for their area, and they want to feel like they've got control over their own decisions. And so that's something that I think through my campaign.I want to emphasize that I want to be that strong voice for the constituency, and I want us to be fully doing everything we can to achieve independence as quickly as possible.”
Elsewhere, Stephen Gethins argued: “We need to make the case of how important independence is, but also the fact that independence will have a real impact on people's day to day lives.”
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The SNP MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry is standing in the Dundee City East constituency. Along with Westminster Stephen Flynn, are two of the SNP’s nine MPs who will be hoping to make the move to Edinburgh come May.
“Every single one of our near neighbors are independent, similar sized near neighbours, they are making improvements to their citizens lives,” he added.
“But while we're tied, shackled, to a failed Westminster model, the Scottish Government's job is made that much more difficult.”
He added: “This is about making a difference to folks lives, and that's the case that I'm going to be making over the next wee while.
“We're not looking for we're not looking to be exceptional. My argument is that we just want to be normal.”
Hannah Mary Goodlad, who is also going toe-to-toe with the LibDems in the Shetland Islands in a bid to unseat Beatrice Wishart, argued that Scotland needs a diverse range of candidates, and while focussing on independence may be a key campaigning point for some of her colleagues, it won’t work for her.
She says that Scotland is a “very diverse country”, adding: “To think that a campaign can be run on a central theme or a style is false, in my opinion.
“We need diverse candidates representing diverse constituencies, and Scotland's just a tapestry of that.
“What works, or what's relevant, or what's a real, pressing issue down in Bathgate is very different from up in Baltasound in Shetland.”
She added that independence “can’t be overlooked” and she would make “no apologies” for believing in it, but explained: “I stand behind independence, but I'm not leading with it, because there's a whole host of constituency issues that we need to sort in Shetland.
"They're not going to be solved by constitution.”
In Bathgate, Pauline Stafford, a local councillor, is contesting a seat in an area that just saw Reform win its first-ever election in Scotland.
She insists that the West Lothian council ballot, for the nearby Whitburn and Blackburn ward, which had a low turnout of 22% and was held just a few weeks before Christmas, was not a signifier of the national picture.
But she did concede that the party could not be ignored, and that voters are evidently “frustrated”.
“They were promised change, and they're not seeing that change now, 18 months in, in their own lives, and they're looking for a radical solution,” she said of voters following Labour’s win at the General Election.
“What we are saying is independence is that radical solution, but people have turned to Reform just through frustration.”
Stafford admits that she thinks there will be more of that, but says Swinney’s approach of refusing to move to the right in a bid to follow Reform, as other parts have done, is the right one.
“I think it's really important that we challenge them on what their policies are because I think they would be just extremely damaging for Scotland and for this area especially,” she said.
“That's what we'll be fighting on, because if we don't confront Reform, I think, what we're seeing, you’d just be consumed by them.”
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