Alex Salmond, former first minister, has urged pro-independence parties to field candidates who will only run on that topic in the forthcoming general election
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday that the Scottish Parliament could not hold another independence referendum without the consent of Westminster, the leader of the Alba Party made the decision.
In response, Nicola Sturgeon said that the upcoming general election, which is scheduled for late 2024 or early 2025, would in fact be a referendum.
Salmond suggested that parties in favour of independence may run under the slogan “Scotland united for independence.”
You would do ‘SNP, Scotland united for independence’, ‘Greens, Scotland united for independence,’ and ‘Alba, Scotland united for independence,’ he added in an interview with STV News.
“That is the technical way you could do it. There is lots of discussion needed, but you have to do something like that to make that the issue of the campaign.”
The former SNP leader also criticised Lord Reed, the Supreme Court president who handed down the ruling, saying that by questioning Scotland’s right to seek independence, he went too far.
Salmond said: “Very few people are going to stand as Lord Reed did and question Scotland’s national right to self-determination”/.
“In international law terms, Scotland is a recognised constitutional entity. There is the precedent from 2014, we have the institutions of a nation, including a parliament.
“Most decent people, not just in Scotland but around the world, would say that nation has the right of self-determination, and it is unsustainable to try and pretend or say otherwise.”
Salmond criticised the Scottish Government’s approach on securing indyref2 in a lengthy interview.
He said there “hasn’t been a strategy” on independence, a position he described as “mind boggling”.
And he described the decision to refer a draft bill to the Supreme Court for clarification on its legality as “the charge of the light brigade”.
Salmond also called for the convening of a constitutional convention to galvanise support for independence and urged more “popular agitation”, as well as MSPs exploring the possibility of drafting a bill that was within the powers of the Holyrood parliament.
Suggest an Edit to this article
