JOHN Swinney must deliver on his pre-election promises and include building independence support in his Programme for Government next week, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens has said.
Gillian Mackay told The National that Swinney must set out the plan he has for building further support after the draft agenda for the upcoming SNP conference did not include any motions on the party’s independence strategy.
She also hinted that SNP members could consider changing the way motions are chosen at conference, with the Greens placing power with membership as to what should be prioritised.
The SNP leadership has been accused of shutting down debate on independence following the publication of the draft agenda.
The National understands that numerous branches put forward proposals ranging from contesting the next General Election as a de facto referendum, setting up a constitutional convention, and putting in place plans for when Westminster inevitably refuses to grant a Section 30 order to hold a referendum.
However, none of the motions appeared in a provisional agenda seen by this paper.
Asked for her response to this, Mackay said she wants to see Swinney lay out his plan for building support for independence in the Programme for Government, which is set to be announced on Tuesday.
“I think it’s really important how we build that support for independence and I’m really hoping that we see something in the Programme for Government from John about how he’s going to take that forward,” she told The National.
“He said during the election that he has a plan. We need to see that come forward.
“We passed at our party council our independence strategy and how we’re going to build that support among the general public to get that bigger majority for independence, to make it more difficult for Westminster to continue to deny that route and I think it’s going to be increasingly difficult for Westminster to do that given what we’re seeing both from Wales and Northern Ireland about them looking for referendums as well.”
Furious SNP members told The National that after First Minister John Swinney’s independence strategy – that a majority of SNP MSPs in Holyrood would constitute a mandate for a referendum – failed, they had expected the party to open up the issue for debate at the October conference in Aberdeen.
Mackay said having space to talk about a route to independence is important to those already on the Yes side, but conversations about mechanisms are also not going to inspire those undecided voters.
She said: “I think as a movement we’re always going to talk about the route. I think people who have been in the movement for a long time are hugely frustrated by where we are and I think it is useful to have those conversations, but I don’t think they are the conversations that are going to keep building support.
“I do think it’s important though that the movement has space to discuss those because that route is very important to some people who are already on the Yes side.”
Mackay also suggested SNP members could push leadership on changing the way conference motions are decided if they are unhappy about key resolutions not making the final cut.
“Ours [Green conference] is obviously set up very differently where members bring forward stuff and there is a prioritisation ballot for members and any individual member can bring something forward rather than it just being restricted to branches,” she said.
She went on: “If SNP members want to change the way their motions come to conference and who decides on it, I think they are more than capable of making that want known to the powers that be.”
The Scottish Greens party council adopted a new independence strategy earlier this year.
It set out a three-part plan which involves using existing legislative powers effectively, as well as pushing the limits of devolution and picking more fights with the UK Government.
Co-leaders Ross Greer and Mackay are seeking to grow support for independence and "build a clear majority of public opinion" that forces Westminster to recognise Scotland’s right to self-determination.
Mackay said the Greens will continue to push the Scottish Government to be bolder in pushing the boundaries of devolution.
“We’ve had a lot of discussion over several years about mechanisms and how we get there [to independence] and we know that generally those conversations don’t inspire those who might be on the fence or soft no voters,” she said.
“It’s about making use of the powers Holyrood has and using them to the fullest extent possible, making sure we redistribute wealth and people have a better standard of living and give people that confidence that parliament can continue to do that.
“[It’s about] pushing the government to act more boldly in those grey areas where there is a little bit of ambiguity in where the hard and fast line is about where Westminster’s responsibilities start and Scottish Government’s ones end.”
Mackay went on: “We’re really clear that this session at parliament needs to be used to push those boundaries of devolution and move into those grey areas and demonstrate to people that this is why we’re doing it.”
