A CROSS-MOVEMENT Independence Convention should be held after the SNP’s special conference to mobilise the grassroots campaign, a senior MP has said.
Pete Wishart, the SNP’s longest-serving member of the House of Commons, has argued that the campaign to use a Westminster or Holyrood election as an independence vote needs to be “inclusive and community based”.
The Perth and North Perthshire MP said that the summit should invite all parties who support independence to establish a campaign HQ and structure, as well as “prepare materials and central messaging”.
He warned that the grassroots Yes campaign only has around a year to get itself organised before the looming General Election in 2024.
“What we will need is a general Yes campaign designed and structured around a General Election but which involves the whole movement and reaches out to civic Scotland,” Wishart said.
“This body must be inclusive, consensual and community based.”
Wishart also said a code of conduct will be key to the campaign. We previously told how SNP MP Stewart Hosie backed a Yes pledge to commit to “respectful and tolerant” campaigning during indyref2, with hopes it will be used as a template for the wider movement, in May last year.
And now, Wishart has said that as well as a code of conduct, a summit should be tasked with running the bulk of the Yes campaign.
He said: “I believe that following our conference we should call an Independence Convention and invite all parties that support independence, representatives of civic Scotland and campaigning organisations to come together to craft a campaign, structure an organisation and prepare materials and central messaging.
“A small executive committee should be elected and that body would provide the leadership and become the co-ordinating body for the campaign.
Wishart said the SNP should be “aligned as closely as possible” with the grassroots campaign.
He added: “We should use its offices and structure to conduct public meetings, engage with business organisations and organise local campaigning.
“Working together we can make the best possible case to those who are still to be persuaded of the case for an independent Scotland.
“This has never been done before and if we get our structures and organisation in place we can give this the best possible foundations to not just win this but to win it well.
“We probably have just over a year to get all this in place and we will have to move quickly when our special conference is concluded.”
We previously told how Wishart said a de-facto referendum is the “only way” to settle Scotland’s constitutional debate following the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Scottish Parliament does not have the legislative competence to pass a referendum bill allowing indyref2 to go ahead.
Following the decision, the SNP scrapped the October 2023 referendum date as planned, and said they would be pursuing a de-facto referendum at the next Westminster election instead.
SNP politicians have debated whether or not a General Election or Holyrood election would be the preferred battle to fight, with the details set to be thrashed out at a special conference in Edinburgh in March.
