Senior SNP MP launches scathing attack on Nicola Sturgeon 'dithering' over Scottish independence

Angus MacNeil says 'all options' must be on the table, including a wildcat referendum

(PA)

A senior SNP MP has launched a scathing attack on Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish government, accusing it of “dithering” over independence and calling for it to consider staging a Catalonia-style wildcat referendum without Boris Johnson’s approval.

With the prime minister making clear he will not give his consent to a repeat of the legally binding referendum of 2014 Angus MacNeil said “all options” for securing independence must now be on the table, including claiming a mandate through victory in next year’s Scottish elections.

And he suggested that Scotland should make a bold grab for independence like the nations of Eastern Europe when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, rather than submitting to the terms of the 1998 Scotland Act which require the PM’s approval for a referendum.

The intervention by the Western Isles MP is a rare crack in the SNP’s unity behind Ms Sturgeon and indicates frustration at the absence of a clear route to an independence vote under her leadership.

Writing on the PoliticsHome website, Mr MacNeil blamed “dithering” by the SNP leadership for delaying its request for referendum under Section 30 of the Scotland Act until after the election, which he said had denied the party the opportunity to set out a position in its manifesto for the 12 December poll.

And following the PM’s rejection of the request, he said it was not enough for the party to simply sit on its hands and complain that Downing Street’s position is “unsustainable”.

Even if a Scottish government move to independence was ruled a breach of the terms of the 1998 Act, Mr MacNeil said he expected it to be recognised internationally.

“All avenues of the consultative referendum should be explored now, and the Scottish Government should be decisive and not dither as it did over the Section 30 request,” said Mr MacNeil.

“That will be a hard sentence for many of my colleagues to read, but dither it was. Now the Scottish Government is dithering over establishing the legality of a consultative refer

endum and that is another hard fact to swallow.

“If all referendum approaches are closed off, then we move away from the Salmond-inspired referendum approach that holds sway today and allow the Scottish people democratic expression at an election, either by majority of seats or votes. “After all, Boris Johnson has his mandate for any Brexit on 43% of the vote and 56% of the seats. The SNP in Scotland has 45% of the vote and 82% of the seats, on Westminster’s own rules.”

He added: “International recognition will follow recognition in Scotland by whatever means this is established…

“Some say ‘there are no short cuts to independence’. Events of 1989 disprove such vacillating rhetoric, but the Scottish period of 1979 to 1997 proves there are some long hauls.

“Personally, at age 49, waiting 18 years until I am 67 to improve Scotland is not a long haul I am ready for. In politics we are in it to win it, not to ‘hedge our bets’ for decades. Scotland needs to win.”