THE SNP’s youth wing will be critical to a Yes win at the Holyrood elections in nine week’s time – despite claims that it’s not working for independence, leaders say.

Detractors claim Young Scots for Independence (YSI) is more interested in causes like trans rights than the constitution, with members and office-bearers subjected to personal criticism and abuse on Twitter.

All under the age of 30, some members are as young as 14 and convenor Cailyn McMahon says none deserve the flack meted out on social media, often by newly created anonymous accounts with few followers and fewer posts.

McMahon, a politics student, says critics also fail to see the graft put in by the nationwide group, which has 99 internally elected representatives across Scotland’s regions – and the asset it will be to the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections.

“There’s a reason why 70% of young people support independence, it’s because the arguments have come through to us,” she says. “It’s about trying to bring that to wider generations who don’t support independence as much as we do.

“It’s more important than ever to go out of your way to engage with young people in our party. Talk to us. We have an array of untapped technology skills that’ll help take us over the line.”

She added: “If you don’t have a young person in your campaign team, you absolutely need one this time around.”

Founded around 50 years ago, YSI was set up as Young Scottish Nationalists (YSN) before undergoing a name change in the 1990s. Prominent former members include First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy John Swinney, as well as the party’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford.

Over the years, it’s taken a clear stand on key issues from Nato membership, which it opposed, to reform of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA), which it supports – a stance which has attracted much of the current criticism. Wings Over Scotland, which has called the YSI “woke Nazis”, is amongst the critics.

“It fails me how this has become a wedge issue,” McMahon says. “ As much as we believe trans rights are human rights and people’s existence isn’t up for debate, there has to be room for discussions around policy.

“I joined the SNP because of the inclusivity and the welcome that immigrants would have – the outward-looking, internationalist, positive case. That’s everything I believe this movement is and should be. I really wouldn’t have thought before now that that would be something that would be questioned.

“We are all on the same side, as much as we may have different beliefs on policy.”

Born in South Africa and raised in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, 20-year-old student McMahon moved to Scotland with her Scots dad and German mum in the run-up to the 2014 independence referendum. She was under the new lower voting age of 16, but was struck by the level of engagement amongst classmates at her new high school and educated herself about our political system and the arguments for Yes and No.

“Growing up in the Middle East, there was no democracy there – there are no elections, no referendums,” she said. “Everybody at my new school was talking about it. I had to Google what a referendum was.

“My dad supported Yes, but it wasn’t really something we talked about. I woke up on September 19 that year with the sense of disappointment that we hadn’t voted Yes and joined the SNP after that.

“Back then, the argument was that you would vote No with your head but Yes with your heart. As an immigrant, I have no real emotional attachment to this. For me, it is logical, believing in the principle of equality.

“Independence is the means to the end of a fairer, more equal society,” she goes on. “Young people in the SNP are uncompromising in that belief that equality and independence go hand in hand.”

Last weekend saw McMahon named YSI convenor for a second time in the organisation’s annual elections. This month she and 11 other members will walk 10,000 steps a day as part of Walk All Over Cancer initiative to raise funds for Cancer Research UK while also working towards the Holyrood contest.

“We are more than willing to chap doors and do the leaflet runs in 10-storey flats,” she says on the group’s work ethic. “YSI has campaigned in every election and by-election across the country since 2016. We turned out in hordes in Shetland for the Holyrood

by-election and for council by-elections. People on Twitter don’t see us sitting on a bus for four hours to get to Inverness.

“We have never been more active than this year. Being online has made us more accessible.

“There probably haven’t been as many young people attending Yes group or SNP branch meetings but that doesn’t mean they’re not active in the movement because they are active within the youth aspect.”

To get in touch with YSI, email contact@ysi.scot.