Nicola Sturgeon's independence plan is not 'deflating', insists SNP Westminster leader

The SNP's Westminster leader has denied Nicola Sturgeon's independence strategy is collapsing after she staged an extraordinary climbdown over using the next general election as a "de facto" referendum.

Stephen Flynn said SNP members should be given a choice over the next steps, after the First Minister watered down her pledge to use next year's Westminster election to try to get a mandate for separation.

He denied Ms Sturgeon's blueprint for achieving independence was "deflating fairly rapidly", with the strategy potentially being postponed until the 2026 Holyrood election.

His denial came after the party's ruling national executive committee decided at the weekend to put two options to the membership at a special conference in March.

Under one plan, the SNP winning a majority of Scottish seats at the general election would lead to the party demanding that the UK Government transfer the necessary powers to stage a legal referendum.

If this was refused, the party would try to turn the 2026 Holyrood election into a "de facto referendum" on independence.

Nationalist parties winning more than half the popular vote would be deemed to be a mandate to open divorce negotiations with the UK Government.

The second option being presented to the conference is Ms Sturgeon's original plan to use next year's general election as the "de facto" referendum. However, senior SNP sources indicated this was no longer the leadership's favoured plan.

The announcement marks a major climbdown by the First Minister, who made an unequivocal pledge to use the Westminster election as a referendum after the Supreme Court ruled she did not have the power to stage a vote.

It follows a huge internal revolt by SNP MPs terrified of losing their seats next year if they are forced to fight the election on the sole issue of independence, while Labour and the Tories contest it on issues such as energy bills and the cost of living crisis.

Pete Wishart, the SNP's longest-serving MP, last week called Ms Sturgeon's original plan a "massive gamble" that risked killing off independence for a generation and the SNP's position as Scotland's main party.

Supporters of using a Holyrood election instead have pointed out that it would include 16- and 17-year-olds and foreign nationals, both groups that strongly back separation in opinion polls but cannot vote in Westminster contests.

However, it remains unclear how the SNP could obtain an electoral mandate for independence in a Scottish Parliament election when the Supreme Court ruled that the issue is entirely the responsibility of Westminster.

Mr Flynn told BBC Scotland's Sunday Show that he still favoured Ms Sturgeon's original plan to use the general election as a referendum rather than waiting until 2026.

Arguing the SNP had to offer voters "hope", he said: "We need to offer the people of Scotland sooner rather than later the opportunity to do things better and to do things differently."

Asked why members were being given a different option, he said: "Because there's obviously a broad range of views within the party and within the independence movement as to what comes next."

Mr Flynn rejected demands by Angus MacNeil, the Western Isles MP, for a snap Holyrood election this year, but admitted the franchise used for Scottish Parliament contests "may well be something which helps the independence movement".

Denying the First Minister's plans were collapsing, he said it was a "good thing" there were now two options as "we'd probably be getting criticised for not allowing members the opportunity to debate".

But Alex Neil, a former Cabinet minister in Ms Sturgeon's Government, said the SNP's NEC had produced a "muddle and a guddle that would require the electorate to hire a Philadelphia lawyer to work out".

Dismissing the latest plan as "utterly confusing", he told the Sunday Times: "It shows the leadership's original de facto referendum strategy was ill thought out and it leaves the independence movement not knowing whether the SNP is coming or going."