A MOTION urging SNP members to back an alternative route to independence if Boris Johnson continues to refuse powers for Holyrood to hold a new referendum has been the first to be submitted to the party’s conference, according to one of its authors.
Chris McEleny, alongside Angus MacNeil MP, wants the party agree to a publicly announced strategy when it gathers remotely from November 28 to 30 to counter any future refusal by Boris Johnson to grant a Section 30 order.
Last week The National revealed the wording of the resolution has been agreed between the SNP’s national secretary and the Plan B architects. If passed it could see ministers seek a legal challenge to establish if Holyrood could stage the new vote without the Prime Minister’s agreement. Should this step prove unsuccessful, the motion argues that the May 2021 elections should be a de facto referendum on independence.
Boris Johnson has refused to say whether he would grant the order even if the SNP win a majority at next year’s Holyrood election with a firm commitment to deliver a referendum.
Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, the Prime Minister was asked if he would grant the Section 30 order under those circumstances.
“I don’t think this is the time quite frankly for us to have another referendum,” he said. “We had a referendum in 2014, we were told it was a once in a generation event, by the leaders of the Scottish Nationalist Party, and six years, it doesn’t seem to me, is a generation.”
The SNP duo tried to get the party to adopt the policy before last year’s UK election but a full debate on Plan B was blocked at the SNP’s conference in Aberdeen. McEleny was booed by some party members when he tried to get the issue discussed. However he believes the mood among the party’s grassroots has changed.
“Last year there was an element of thought that we didn’t need a Plan B because it wouldn’t be sustainable for Boris Johnson to refuse a Section 30 order if we won the General election,”said McEleny, a councillor in Inverclyde, who is hoping to get selected as a SNP candidate for Holyrood next year.
The Plan B motion was lodged within 15 minutes of the SNP inviting motions to be submitted. Extracts of it reads:”Conference notes the UK Government has refused to issue a section 30 order to facilitate a referendum on Scottish independence. Conference condemns the undemocratic approach of the UK Government in denying the mandate of the Scottish Government to give the people of Scotland a choice on their own future.
“Conference reaffirms holding a consented referendum on Scottish independence is our first preference to allow the people of Scotland to exercise their right to self-determination on their future. Conference calls on the UK government to use a Section 30 order to make clear that making provision for an independence referendum falls within the competence of the Scottish Government and Parliament.
“Conference calls on the Scottish Government to establish the legal competence of the Scottish Parliament holding a referendum on Scottish independence without the approval of the UK Parliament.
“Conference instructs if a referendum on Scotland’s future is denied by the UK Government and the competence to hold a consultative referendum is not established, then the manifesto for the 2021 Scottish Parliamentary elections shall state that the election of a pro-independence majority of seats, in the absence of a referendum, shall be a mandate from the people of Scotland to commence independence negotiations with the UK Government.”
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