Yahoo News Sturgeon in plea for SNP unity as rival party plots Yes 'super majority' at Holyrood
Nicola Sturgeon has issued a plea for SNP unity, as a new pro-independence party revealed plans to deliver a Holyrood “super majority” of MSPs in favour of breaking up the UK.
While the First Minister is enjoying high approval ratings for her handling of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been growing criticism of her leadership from parts of her party, with some unhappy at her failure to deliver a second independence referendum and her stance on issues such as gender recognition reform.
A new party, the Alliance for Independence (AFI), is to appeal to SNP supporters for their second vote at next year’s election, adopting a controversial strategy which critics claim is an attempt to “game” Holyrood’s hybrid voting system.
Ms Sturgeon issued a warning to her party about the dangers of a split and said there was “something odd” about the criticism for the SNP, given poll ratings.
She told Scotland on Sunday that she wanted the SNP to be “united” ahead of the 2021 election. The SNP leader added: "History is littered with examples of political parties that start talking to each other as opposed to the public. I don't think that's where the SNP is generally.
"I haven't had the head room to think about it [due to the pandemic] but… there does seem something odd about a political party that is sitting after 13 years in power, with record opinion poll ratings and the biggest ever support for independence, agonising over what's gone wrong."
John Curtice, the respected polling expert, has said that, for the first time ever, the pro-independence side would be favourites to win any new referendum on leaving the UK. A recent poll found support at 54 per cent.
Dave Thompson, the former SNP MSP who is involved with setting up the AFI, said yesterday that the new party’s strategy would be inspired by Ruth Davidson’s success in 2016, when her focus on the union saw the Conservatives deliver a record result.
Under Holyrood’s voting system, if a party does well in constituency elections, decided on a first past the post system, it makes it harder to pick up regional seats, which are allocated to parties on a proportional representation system.
Mr Thompson has argued that if enough SNP voters back the new party with their second vote, it could see up to 24 MSPs elected. “I suppose, in a sense, we have learnt from Ruth Davidson,” he told the Sunday Mail. “They exhorted all the unionists to vote for them to stop another indyref. It was actually very successful for them.
“They used the system as it was set out. We saw how effective it was and realised it was something we could use to our advantage, to create a super-majority of independence-supporting MSPs in the parliament in 2021.”
Reacting to Ms Sturgeon’s comments, Jackson Carlaw, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted Sturgeon’s long-standing failures in the likes of education, justice and health. These became starker with the national scandal of care homes, non-existent testing and a screeching u-turn over schools going back.
“Now, rather than attempt to do the day job better, she talks about independence as an olive branch for the fed-up.
“Meanwhile, during this crisis the UK Government has patiently gone about the business of shoring up Scotland’s economy, paying wages, increasing support for the vulnerable, and protecting jobs and our markets.”
