TWO retiring SNP politicians have urged Nicola Sturgeon to rethink SNP opposition over the Alba Party's indy talks plan.

The party, which is fighting for list votes in its first-ever election, says it will ask MSPs to back the immediate talks with Downing Street on independence if its candidates with Holyrood places on Thursday.

Alba says this will be its first act and has urged Yes candidates to get behind the plan.

But Sturgeon has indicated the SNP would not support this, saying she'll first focus on the roadmap out of lockdown, with an update on restrictions due on May 17 — 11 days after the election.

She said: “If you are asking me, is my first act on the day after the election going to be that, as opposed to doing what we need to do on Covid, the answer is no.

“I have believed in independence all of my adult life but the most important responsibility for a First Minister amidst a global crisis is to lead the country through it.”

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In an interview with the Sunday Mail, she went on: “We only get independence when a majority of people want it. You win a majority by persuading people, not by bulldozing your way towards it.”

Now two veteran SNP figures have called for a re-think.

In a joint statement, Gil Paterson, a former convenor of the SNP parliamentary group at Holyrood, and ex-cabinet secretary Alex Neil call for “serious consideration of a united demand” for the next Scottish Parliament to “use its political muscle to demand urgent negotiations with Boris Johnson on progressing Scottish independence”. 

Paterson, now stepping down after a Holyrood career that started in 2007, added: “We are not asking Nicola to endorse a motion she hasn’t yet seen but simply agree to consider supporting the principle that the new Parliament should give serious consideration to Alba’s proposal to demand an immediate opening of negotiations on independence with the UK Government.” 

Neil — who has is retiring after serving in every Scottish Parliament since 1999 — added: “Whilst we must continue to deal with the immediate issues regarding the coronavirus pandemic, there is no reason why we should not also be pursuing our constitutional demands at the same time. 

“To fully recover economically from the pandemic we will need the tools that only independence can give us to do that successfully.”