Alex Salmond has dismissed Nicola Sturgeon's plan to hold a second referendum on independence next year as "not particularly credible".
The former First Minister - speaking ahead of the Alba Party conference at Hampden Park tomorrow - claimed the SNP had so far failed to launch any meaningful campaign ahead of such a vote.
Nicola Sturgeon has insisted an IndyRef2 will take place by the end of 2023 despite opposition from the UK Government.
But recent polls show Scots are still divided on the big constitutional question with the pro-independence and pro-Union positions hovering around the 50 per cent mark.
Salmond - who led the SNP at the time of the 2014 independence vote - said there was now "a huge amount of impatience among independence supporters".
He told the Herald : "It seems unlikely that Boris Johnson is going to meekly say to the Scottish Government: ‘Well done, chaps, you can now have a referendum and I am changing my mind on the issue.’
"Therefore, you have to campaign to change his mind and have a series of contingencies as to what you do if Westminster says no.”
Salmond added: "There’s a huge amount of impatience among independence supporters because the latest promise of a referendum in 2023 looks pretty optimistic, to say the least."
The Alba Party leader contrasted preparations for the 2014 vote with the lack of any concrete plans for an IndyRef2.
He continued: "We had the legislation through, the date set, the preparations made…All the plans were in place as they could be, but none of that has [now] happened; not even the agreement to have the referendum in the first place…
"The idea of a referendum next year, for many people looking at it, doesn’t look particularly credible."
The Alba Party failed to elect any MSPs at last year's Holyrood poll and is now looking forward to May's council elections.
Asked by the paper to explain the party's performance at the ballot box, Salmond said: "In a way, I think of Alba’s role now as a bit akin to the relationship between the SNP and the Labour Party in 1990s. Whereas Labour was the dominant party by far, the SNP were nipping at their heels.
"Every time the SNP made any sort of political breakthrough, in the polls or won a by-election or even came close in a by-election, the minds of the Labour Party were concentrated wonderfully on their historic mission for Scottish home rule.”
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