MICHAEL Russell is being urged to write to Boris Johnson immediately to demand the legal transfer of referendum powers to Holyrood to hold a second independence vote.
SNP MP Angus MacNeil and his ally Chris McEleny have called upon Scotland’s Constitutional Relations Secretary to demand a meeting with the Prime Minister to seek the measure which could allow a second referendum to happen.
Their move follows an opinion poll at the weekend which suggested support for Yes has now risen to 54%.
The duo are associated with the so-called Plan B, which seeks to come up with an alternative route to independence should the Prime Minister continue to reject the Plan A request for a Section 30 order.
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But, speaking to The National, they say they want renewed efforts to be made on gaining independence via the same “Plan A” route agreed between the Scottish and UK Governments ahead of the 2014 vote.
“Everybody should be trying to get Plan A to work now, it is the only plan with a mandate,” MacNeil told The National.
“Therefore, myself and Councillor McEleny are writing to Michael Russell MSP, the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Constitutional Relations, to meet with the UK Government to demand a Section 30 order. The mandate is there, the opinion polls are there.
"Plan A must work and we should all rally around to get it happening in the next few months. If Plan A has any hope, then that hope is now.”
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He added that ahead of the next election the party should include a fall back position in its manifesto if Johnson continued to reject the Section 30 order request, assuming the SNP are returned to power at Holyrood for a fourth term. The party chose to only mandate Plan A for the last election.
“We should all rally behind the Scottish Government and get them to demand that Westminster delivers, that is the only game in town today.”
McEleny added: “The Scottish Government is very busy on a number of fronts at the moment, clearly Nicola Sturgeon and Jeane Freeman are busy with Covid-19, John Swinney is busy with education and Kate Forbes is looking for some of the powers of independence with regards to finance ... Not to be forgotten, the UK Government is pressing on with their crazy Brexit.
“Therefore, it is time for Michael Russell to demand a meeting with the UK Government and to ensure a Section 30 order is delivered so that Scotland can hold a referendum on independence.
“Independence is sitting at 54% on the polls, independence is the choice of the Scottish people.”
Their intervention comes just days after Kenny MacAskill, the SNP MP, said the party leadership needed to “wake up “and deal with independence.
He said he could understand why the First Minister and the Health Secretary “have been otherwise engaged” but that “the work on independence should be getting done”.
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