THE de facto independence referendum plan is not “out of the question”, SNP leadership contender Humza Yousaf has said.
At the launch of his campaign to become the next Scottish First Minister on Monday, Yousaf admitted he was not “wedded” to the idea as much as Nicola Sturgeon.
The bid to fight the next General Election on the single issue of independence has been thrown into doubt in recent days as fellow contender Kate Forbes also said she was wary of pursuing that route and favoured a “strong leadership” approach.
The other contender, former Scottish minister Ash Regan, suggested that any parliamentary election could serve as a de facto referendum.
Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, the Health Secretary was asked if the de facto referendum plan was dead in the water.
He replied: “No, it’s not out of the question, I was being honest in my opinion.
“I’m not wedded to the idea in the same way that the current First Minister is, she has said it's her preferred option, for me, I think we should be open-minded about what the route should be.”
Yousaf was asked why, if he had reservations about Sturgeon’s preference, he didn’t challenge her on her views.
He said he wouldn’t “undermine our party leader” while she was in post.
He added: “I’m somebody who’s loyal to the leadership of the party.
“Now we’re in the middle of a leadership contest, I think it's right people want to know what your opinions are if you’re going to be leading the party and of course, the SNP is the largest driving force of the independence movement.
“So for the wider independence movement, they want to know what the leader of the SNP’s opinions are. I’ll be laying out some of this during the contest, but I genuinely want to hear from our party membership.
“Let's have that discussion, not just at a one-off special conference, as important as these one-off conferences are, let's take [the] approach where we have a conversation with our membership across the country and let's see what ideas are coming from that array of talent that we have within the membership.”
Yousaf also reiterated his bid to “get off the process question” and instead focus on the policies of independence.
He added: “That’s what our opponents want us to do, they want us to get bogged down in process after process after process and actually what we should be doing is getting back to basics and talking to people about the benefits of independence.
“Particularly in the midst of a cost of living crisis, sky-high inflation, and a time when people are genuinely suffering because of Tory imposed austerity.”
Yousaf also said it would be “pretty clear” when there is a settled will for Scottish independence.
He explained: “Let's just take the current situation, the current situation will see some polls that will put independence at 50, 55% and the next day, or even sometimes the same day, there's another poll that puts it below majority support, and so…”
Yousaf was asked again how he would “know” there is a settled will.
He added: “I think it will be obvious by the point when we have a sustained level of support for independence, at the moment it's not sustained, it fluctuates from poll to poll, what we’d be looking for is assuring that we have sustained support, majority support for independence.”
The Health Secretary was then asked if he would be looking to opinion polls to show a sustained majority.
He replied: “No, because we have that mandate, but what I’m saying to you the political reality is that it becomes impossible to ignore that settled will.
“All those political obstacles that are put in the way by successive UK Governments, well they can’t be ignored when you have the vast majority, you have the majority of the Scottish people supporting independence. It becomes a political inevitability.”
Asked to put a percentage figure on it, Yousaf refused, adding: “That’s a trap that our opponents and some would like us to fall into, that’s again getting stuck into that quagmire of process.
“It will be pretty obvious when we have a sustained [majority support].”
