JOHN Swinney is being urged to back a new independence strategy at the SNP’s forthcoming party conference, the Sunday National can reveal.
More than 50 branches are calling on the First Minister to back an updated approach to gaining independence after Andy Burnham last week conceded that majority support should lead to indyref2.
Grassroots activists said that the PM “put the ball firmly in Scotland’s court” and that the SNP must respond with a new plan of action.
Of the 10 most recent polls on Scottish independence, eight showed support for independence narrowly ahead of opposition.
The call comes from an amendment drafted by the SNP’s former policy development convener Toni Giugliano and says that the party must “build democratic pressure that no Westminster government can ignore”.
The proposed strategy has four planks. The first is focused on “building consensus on the mechanism”, which it is envisaged would involve “working with civic Scotland to agree a democratic, lawful and credible route by which Scotland can determine its constitutional future”.
It is also proposed that the SNP must be focused on “increasing support for independence”, which would be done “through a national campaign to build a broad and sustained majority for independence”.
Thirdly, the SNP would make “the next UK General Election a defining moment for Scotland to express its will on independence”, which Giugliano stressed was not a “de facto” referendum but instead putting “Scotland's right to choose” to the test at the ballot box.
Finally, the party would also be committed to the creation of a new “independence delivery unit” which it is hoped would lay “the foundations for an independent Scotland”.
Among scores of other grassroots members, the amendment is being backed by Jacqui Jensen, a member of the FM’s local branch who spoke in favour of his independence strategy at last year’s conference.
Last year, the SNP resolved to take winning a majority of seats in the Holyrood election as a mandate for a second referendum; however, the party fell short of this at the May poll.
There was controversy earlier in the year when a number of draft resolutions on the party's independence strategy did not make it on to the provisional conference agenda.
Jensen told the Sunday National: “I wanted to give the First Minister the benefit of the doubt and support him to put his case across and for us to get behind him. It was important to me that we had unity as a party as much as we could have.
“I did know at the time that we were, as a party, getting anxious that independence was slipping away from us and that there needed to be a concerted effort on behalf of, not just political parties, but on behalf of the movement to get things moving, to try and get a clamour among the independence movement.”
Jensen, an SNP member of 10 years standing, added that she was convinced of Swinney’s commitment to independence.
“I knew how much it means to him,” she said. “I know that John passionately wants independence for Scotland. I know him, and I’m in his constituency, and I hear what he tells me and I believe him, I see the passion in him.”
She added that Burnham’s comments on independence last week – despite later writing to Swinney to reiterate his opposition to a second referendum – meant that things had changed for independence supporters.
She said: “We take him [Burnham] at his word now. He has said we have the right to choose and if a majority of us choose it, we get it. So that’s the position we’re now in.
“We’ve moved on from needing for us to have the right to choose accepted to recognising that it’s accepted.”
Burnham spoke of the need for a “clear consensus” on the issue, which he said was “exactly” the same as the process by which there would be a border poll in Northern Ireland, though the Good Friday Agreement stipulates only that the UK Government should believe “a majority” support reunification.
Jensen stressed that she did not want to define what sustained support would look like but said: “How do you define settled will? Obviously in a referendum, that could be 51, 52% but we’re not in a referendum situation. So what do we need to get us to that referendum?
“Personally, I wouldn’t want to be putting a number on it. I don’t want to be the one that said ‘60% and we’re there’. There is a bit of, when we see it, and we feel it, we’ll know it rather than there’s a figure. We’ll see it, we’ll feel it, and we’ll know it.”
Giugliano told the Sunday National that his amendment had received “overwhelming” support from “ordinary members".
He said: “I’ve spoken to branches in every corner of Scotland leading up to conference – and there’s a clear consensus that we need a plan that accelerates independence.
“For years, we’ve been told that Scotland’s future depends on Westminster. But the Prime Minister has just blown that argument apart. He has confirmed that the route to a referendum runs through majority support in Scotland. That puts the ball firmly in Scotland’s court. We need to get on with building the clear, sustained majority that no Westminster government can ignore.”
The SNP must begin by “relaunching a national independence campaign”, he argued, adding: “It means building a national consensus around Scotland’s democratic right to choose, working with civic Scotland. And it means putting in place the foundations and infrastructure that make independence possible – including a fresh blueprint and an independence delivery unit.
“Countries become independent not when their neighbour grants it, but when public support becomes unstoppable. And creating those conditions is entirely within our gift.
“It’s time to inspire and start talking about the ‘why’ of independence, not just the ‘how’. I want to see us develop a fresh blueprint covering key strategic areas – from energy security to pensions, Scotland’s defence posture and undoing the harms of Brexit.”
The Scottish Government concluded its refreshed prospectus for independence, the Building a New Scotland series of white papers, in October last year.
Giugliano said that the party’s conference in Aberdeen next month should be a chance to revitalise the independence campaign.
He added: “Conference is a chance to unite and re-energise the party, take our message of hope to the country and turn strong support for independence into an unstoppable majority. We cannot afford to let this moment pass.”
An SNP spokesperson said: "The First Minister has been clear that it is for the people of Scotland to decide their own future, not out of touch Westminster politicians.
"Since the SNP’s landslide victory in May, John Swinney has been discussing independence and the pathway to another referendum with SNP members the length and breadth of Scotland – including at National Assembly specifically organised for that purpose.
"This week a British Prime Minister finally admitted that a referendum should happen when there's majority support for independence, just as is the case in Northern Ireland. The First Minister has already written to the Prime Minister to turn that principle into a legal mechanism.”
