Scottish Prime Minister Humza Yousaf sought on Saturday to breathe new life into his party, the SNP, weighed down by affairs around its finances, by putting independence at the heart of the campaign for the next general elections.
In a speech at an independence convention in the city of Dundee (eastern Scotland), his first major rally since taking office in March, the 38-year-old leader promised that in the event of victory, he would seek to negotiate with London a transfer of power to Scotland.
“If the SNP wins this election, the people will have spoken,” he said.
General elections, the date of which is not yet known, are to be held by the end of next year.
“We will seek to negotiate with the UK Government on how to give a democratic effect to Scotland becoming an independent nation,” he added.
In the event of victory, Humza Yousaf also wants to start “preparing the ground” for Scotland to join the European Union, by sending a representative of the Scottish government to Brussels.
After almost nine years at the head of the SNP and the Scottish government, his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon announced her surprise resignation in February, explaining that she no longer had the “energy” necessary to continue.
Coming to power after the 2014 referendum on independence, where the Scots chose to remain within the United Kingdom, she had benefited from a boost in favor of the independence cause, in particular after Brexit and during the pandemic of Covid-19.
But since his departure, his image has been tarnished. She was taken into custody, like her husband, a former party official, in an investigation into the finances of the SNP.
Both contest any infringement and have not been prosecuted at this stage.
A recent YouGov poll highlighted the reverses of the SNP’s fortunes, predicting a debacle if a parliamentary election is held now. He estimates that the SNP would drop from 48 seats in Parliament at Westminster in London to 27, out of a total of 59 Scottish constituencies represented.
The Labor Party, in favor of keeping Scotland in the United Kingdom alongside England, Wales and Northern Ireland, would win 23 seats from the SNP, to reach a total of 24.
The Scottish Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, also opposed to independence, would each take four seats.
According to pollster John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde, support for independence remains at 48% and Scotland remains almost evenly divided on the issue. In contrast, support for the SNP itself “is far lower than it was and is far below support for independence”, he told BBC Radio 4.
The SNP has dominated Edinburgh’s local parliament since 2007. It currently has 64 seats – out of a total of 129 seats – and governs through a coalition with the pro-independence Greens.
The central government in London has consistently rejected calls for a new independence referendum, arguing that the 2014 vote settled the issue for a generation.
But Nicola Sturgeon put it back on the table after the British chose to leave the European Union two years later, where the Scots voted overwhelmingly against Brexit.
Insisting with successive British Prime Ministers, she took the case to the British Supreme Court. However, the senior magistrates blocked the organization of a new referendum, believing that it was a question “reserved” for the British government.
Nicola Sturgeon then indicated that his government would make the next elections, scheduled for next year, a “de facto referendum”.
The question of whether or not to keep this strategy has not yet been decided, argued Saturday on the BBC Keith Brown, deputy leader of the SNP, denouncing the “undemocratic” refusal of the Westminster government to organize a new referendum, because ” they think they’re going to lose.”
24/06/2023 13:55:28 – Edinburgh (AFP) – © 2023 AFP