SNP members must “keep heart, keep the heid and keep the faith” as they push for independence, the party’s Westminster leader will tell its conference today.
Addressing the online event, Ian Blackford will issue a call for unity, mirroring a similar message from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday.
The goal of the party, he will say, is to elect “an independence majority” at the 2021 Holyrood elections which will then hold a referendum on the country’s constitutional future.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon's opening remarks to SNP conference 2020 in full
Blackford will look to rally the party faithful in his speech, amid tensions in the party over the route to independence should Prime Minister Boris Johnson continue to reject requests for an agreed vote between the UK and Scottish Governments.
Ahead of the conference, SNP chiefs rejected two motions for debate which urged the party to consider a fallback strategy to address the PM’s veto.
Earlier this month Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said the UK Government would not agree to new vote for another generation – which he said could be 25 to 40 years.
“Our plan, our job and our focus is winning an independence majority at Holyrood next May. We have our candidates in place, we have momentum, and we have a leader our nation trusts,” Blackford is expected to say today.
“We have all come a long way – and we are now within touching distance of independence. But just as we have travelled all this way together – we can only complete this journey together.
“My message to all of us is this: Keep heart, keep the heid and keep the faith. A new Scotland – fairer, greener and European – is now ours to win.”
Blackford is also expected to take aim at the UK Government’s handling of devolution, accusing Westminster of attempting to “bypass MSPs and ministers” with the Internal Market Bill.
He will describe the UK Government’s "agenda" as “clear”.
“The Tories will seek to bypass democratically elected MSPs and ministers in Scotland,” he will say. “I suppose that’s what you get from a Prime Minister who was caught red-handed calling Scottish devolution a ‘mistake’ and a ‘disaster’.
“As I told Boris Johnson in Westminster, it wasn’t a slip of the tongue – it was a slip of the Tory mask.”
READ MORE: SNP Conference: Le Monde puts spotlight on Scottish independence
Meanwhile, the party’s depute leader Keith Brown told the conference yesterday a majority for the SNP at next year’s Holyrood election will force the Prime Minister into agreeing to a referendum.
Brown told delegates Johnson “bows to pressure”, citing recent policy changes from the UK Government including on free school meals following a campaign by Manchester United player Marcus Rashford.
He said the PM has “been responsible for more about turns than a parade ground drill sergeant”. Brown said an increase in votes for the SNP will make the pressure for another vote on the constitutional future of the country “impossible to resist”.
The UK Government has repeatedly rejected requests for the powers needed to hold another independence referendum. “I am not putting my faith in Boris Johnson doing the right thing. I am putting my faith in the people of Scotland to make him do the right thing,” the MSP said.
“Scotland, not Boris Johnson, will decide Scotland’s future.”
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