ASH Regan has admitted she has a mountain to climb in the race to become the next SNP leader – but says she is winning support from members who see her as the “only hope” for the party right now.
The former communities minister is viewed as the outsider in the contest, with polls showing she is lagging behind rivals Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf, although many voters are still undecided.
But she told the Sunday National more party members have been in contact in the past week indicating support, particularly on independence.
She said: “Clearly I’ve got a mountain to climb in terms of recognition, clearly [the other candidates] are more well known than I am.
“The shorter contest obviously makes that much more challenging if we had longer time to develop that clearly there’s an opportunity there to develop more momentum.
“However, I would say that in the last week, definitely a lot of members reaching out to me getting in touch, saying they’re very supportive of the policy positions that I’m setting out, particularly the independence strategy.
“A few people have contacted me after the TV debates, particularly saying they are voting for me and they see me as the only hope for the SNP right now.”
When it comes to her approach to achieving independence, Regan claimed she is the only candidate who has a strategy.
Under her “voter empowerment mechanism” (VEM) plan, a majority vote for pro-independence parties in a Westminster or Holyrood election would give a mandate to commence negotiations with the UK Government over leaving the Union.
She said: “I don’t think that’s wise to go into the next general election on a single issue, I don’t think the public would support that.
“Clearly, the public are very concerned about the economic direction the UK Is going in right now, with the cost of living crisis and so on.
“So what I’m suggesting is each and every election with the top first line saying this is an instruction to Westminster and Edinburgh to get together and negotiate Scotland exit from the UK But there will be other manifesto items on there as well.”
Regan pointed to the example of pro-independence parties gathering 50.3% of the vote at the Scottish election and acknowledged it would be a “high hurdle” to achieve.
But she added: “It’s right that should be a high hurdle because this is about the constitutional future of Scotland and we need to show that we have that democratic mandate expressed at the ballot box.”
When it comes to whether other independence parties were on board with this idea, she said she had so far only spoken to them about her idea of establishing an independence convention.
“Everybody I’ve spoken to is wishing me well and saying, you know, that this is a really important part of how we win independence.
“Once I become the leader, I will then go back to speak to them about whether – and obviously it would their choice – about whether they join us and also put that on our manifesto.
“But I anticipate that there would be a good reception to that.”
Regan argued the idea of trying to get a Section 30 order was “dead in the water”.
She added: “Any serious candidate in this contest that is suggesting that repeating the same strategy over and over again, I think needs to be asked some very hard questions.”
When the issue of whether the VEM result would be accepted by the international community, she argued the ballot box is the “gold standard” and not referendums.
“So the international community will see Scotland’s democratically expressed will and I’m sure that they will recognise that, as the UK Government will,” she added.
Asked if she had sought advice or consulted with anyone from the international community on this, she added: “Not so far, but I will do.”
When it comes to what she would do in her first day in office as first minister, Regan said one priority would be housing and funding homes for long-term let at affordable levels, which she described as a “bit like a council house of old”.
To tackle challenges in the NHS, she has set out plans to hold a national summit so that staff can outline what they believe should be done to help it.
She has also unveiled plans to use money from the plastic carrier bag charge to seed investment in a public National Energy Company for Scotland.
“Some companies are diverting some of that [charge] to charity and we don’t want to get in the way of that,” she said.
“But for money where that isn’t currently being sent to charities, then we’re suggesting that we put it towards an energy company in Scotland.
“Energy is one of the most scary things to the public right now. People are absolutely terrified of their bills going up any further, they’re already at completely unsustainable levels.”
She added: “This is an absolute priority for me and then we should be able to set out to people under UK, your energy bills will be this and independent Scotland, your energy bills will be this.
“And hopefully it’ll be like a third or a quarter, of what they would be.”
The Scottish Government previously pledged to establish a state-owned energy company, but the plans did not come to fruition with one reason given difficulties in setting it up under current devolution powers.
Regan said: “I want to look at that again, just to make sure – we will do as much as we can under devolution but it maybe that fullness of this idea will only be under independence.
“If that’s the case, we’ll plan for that and we will move over to that as soon as possible.”
The MSP for Edinburgh Eastern said she would set out a plan for what she aims to achieve within the first 100 days of becoming first minister.
She said the biggest challenge of the contest so far has been the timetable and said that coming up with detailed policies in a week has been “virtually impossible”.
“Actually I think that’s wrong, the seriousness of what we’re doing, which is picking our first minister, it would be better to have more time in order to develop a fuller prospectus in terms of policies,” she said.
Regan has been dubbed the potential “king or queen maker” of the contest. If no candidate wins outright when it closes on March 27, the third placed person will be eliminated and have their second preference votes distributed between the remaining two contenders.
She said: “We don’t know what the views of the membership are right now, it’s very difficult to predict. I’m in this to win it.”
