SNP rivals ditch bid to break up Britain

SNP rivals ditch bid to break up Britain: Candidates to succeed Nicola Sturgeon slam brakes on her plan to turn next general election into ‘de facto referendum’

• Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan all voiced opposition to the plan
• The three candidates said support for independence would need to rise further

Nicola Sturgeon’s strategy for breaking up Britain lies in tatters after the candidates to succeed her slammed the brakes on another independence vote.

Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan all voiced opposition to Miss Sturgeon’s plan to turn the next general election into a ‘de facto referendum’, whereby she would have tried to begin talks on independence if the SNP and other separatist parties won a majority of votes.

The three candidates all agreed yesterday that support for independence would need to rise before they could step up efforts to tear Scotland out of the UK.

Critics branded them ‘the three stooges’ as the leadership rivals vowed to focus on boosting support for separation, sparking claims they would push the same ‘independence obsession’ rather than concentrate on the priorities of most Scots.

It comes as a devastating new report by one of the SNP’s own economic advisers warned that independence could result in 253,000 job losses and the economy shrinking by 10 per cent.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is questioned by media on the way to the first session of First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament since her unexpected resignation

Composite photo of (left to right) Ash Regan, Humza Yousaf, and Kate Forbes, who have all secured sufficient backing to put their names on the ballot to be the next SNP leader and Scottish first minister

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: ‘None of the three candidates in the race are fit to run the country. Scotland deserves better than the three stooges battling it out for Bute House.’

Kate Forbes, Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan will fight it out to take over from Nicola Sturgeon – READ MORE 

 

Craig Hoy, Scottish Conservative chairman, said the ‘bitter infighting’ was ‘getting worse by the day’ and media appearances had shown that the only thing the feuding camps had in common was ‘their relentless obsession with tearing apart the UK’.

He added: ‘Kate Forbes, Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan are vying with each other to see who can throw the most red meat to party members on independence. In doing so, they are moving further and further away from the priorities of ordinary Scots, who want and expect their leaders to focus on the cost of living crisis, an NHS which is on its knees and ending the teacher strikes.’

On the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Yousaf said he would focus on making support for independence a ‘sustainable majority’ view.

He said: ‘If we increase support for independence, make it the sustainable majority… if we create the sustained settled will, the majority of people supporting independence, then of course those political obstacles that are put in the way by our opposition, they will crumble.’ Asked whether that meant he was dropping the idea of the next election being treated as an independence referendum, he said he was ‘not wedded’ to it.

But he said that, under his leadership, every election fought by the SNP would be about independence.

Mr Yousaf, whose bid to become First Minister was endorsed yesterday by former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, added: ‘I think it is right that we energise the membership, that we bring them together, that we have a series of discussions about what the route should be forward, and the leadership should act on that collective mandate.

On the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Yousaf said he would focus on making support for independence a ‘sustainable majority’ view

Miss Regan, the former community safety minister, said the party must demonstrate ‘good governance’ to allow support for independence to rise

‘But let’s not wait for a date, let’s not wait for that process, let’s get out there, chap every door, pound every pavement, look people in the whites of their eyes and tell them why they need independence now. And if we get that settled, sustained majority, then independence will absolutely be inevitable.’

Miss Regan, the former community safety minister, said the party must demonstrate ‘good governance’ to allow support for independence to rise.

She told the BBC’s The Sunday Show: ‘In a de facto referendum situation, it’s a single issue and a single event, and I don’t think we should be fighting the next general election… on a single issue. That’s not appropriate, it’s not wise and we shouldn’t be doing it.’

But she confirmed that any votes for the SNP under her leadership would be considered a vote for independence.

Miss Regan has set out a plan for a ‘voter empowerment strategy’ whereby she would declare independence if the SNP and pro-independence parties won a majority of votes in any future elections – and claimed the mandate would have to be recognised by the UK Government.

Miss Forbes, the Finance Secretary, also said it was not the time for another referendum. She told the Sunday Post: ‘We need to be on the front foot in preparing the ground and making the case for independence. I would like that to be sooner rather than later but I also want it to be at the point when a majority of people can see that independence is the answer on these issues, and we’re not there yet.’

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