The Scottish National party should consider “more evolutionary” constitutional change as an alternative to the “de facto” independence referendum proposed by Nicola Sturgeon, a member of the outgoing first minister’s government has said.
The call by Ben Macpherson, minister for social security and local government, highlights the intensifying debate inside the SNP over future strategy following Sturgeon’s shock resignation announcement on Wednesday.
The SNP’s national executive announced on Thursday that members would vote to elect Sturgeon’s successor as party leader and first minister between March 13 and March 27. It also decided to postpone a party conference scheduled for next month that had been intended to set the strategy for ending Scotland’s three-century-old union with England.
Sturgeon has called for the next UK general election to be used as a “de facto” referendum on Scottish independence, following the British government’s refusal to permit any rerun of the 2014 vote in which Scots backed staying in the union by 55 per cent to 45 per cent.
In the first public questioning of Sturgeon’s plan from a member of her administration, Macpherson told the Financial Times that other approaches should be considered.
“The question for the SNP now is whether we continue to seek to make progress through a short-term event like a de facto referendum election, or pivot to a more evolutionary process of delivering further constitutional change, working with others to build consensus and move forward,” he said.
Macpherson’s call is likely to dismay the more radical SNP members already impatient with what they see as Sturgeon’s overly cautious approach and her strong commitment to a legal and consensual independence process.
However, it will be welcomed by party colleagues who think a de facto referendum is unlikely to yield real progress towards ending the union, given that Westminster would be highly unlikely to accept even a majority vote for pro-independence parties as a mandate for separation.
Stewart McDonald, an SNP member in the UK parliament, published a paper last week arguing that a de facto referendum would be ineffective and calling for the party to focus instead on building support for independence.
Opinion polls suggest low support in Scotland for using an election as a proxy vote for constitutional change, dubbed by the SNP a “plebiscite election”. Many party members are also sceptical.
The SNP’s leader in Westminster, Stephen Flynn, had called on Thursday for next month’s strategy conference to be postponed. “The party should give the new leader the opportunity to set out their stance, their vision at how they see us getting to that independent future,” Flynn told Radio 4’s Today programme.
Sturgeon’s embrace of a plebiscite election was a response to a ruling from the UK Supreme Court last year that the Scottish parliament did not have the legal authority to hold an independence referendum without London’s approval.
Some of her MPs feared that turning the election into a single-issue vote could cost them their seats. In her resignation speech, Sturgeon acknowledged the disagreements, saying she wanted to “free” the party to make its own decision rather than go with her preferred position.
Flynn, who is not standing to replace Sturgeon, said he supported her position on the de facto referendum as a way to break the stalemate after the UK government had “defied democracy” by refusing a second plebiscite.
Sturgeon has also been privately criticised by some colleagues for failing to deliver a decisive boost in support for independence, with polls consistently showing the country almost evenly divided.
Some pro-union parties have hailed the impending departure of Sturgeon, whom her opponents concede is one of the most effective politicians of her generation, as a big blow to independence.
But while Sturgeon has no clear successor, Michael Russell, SNP president, said the party’s first contested leadership election since 2004 would be good for it and the wider campaign for independence.
“Rather than damaging the cause, I think it is an opportunity to renew and refresh the cause,” said Russell, a former cabinet secretary for the constitution who has supported the plebiscite election plan.
“I am very fond of Nicola and I think she has done enormously well, but the guard always changes and if the guard changes, you move on,” he said.
Others in the party see Sturgeon’s exit as a chance to ease the controversy over the Scottish parliament’s attempt to pass a law which would make it easier to obtain official recognition for changes of gender.
Polls suggest the legislation was opposed by most Scots, while a significant minority of the SNP’s own members agreed with London’s decision to veto the Scottish bill.
“It’s incumbent upon a new leader to try and find a path that allows us to have that positive discussion as to why this legislation is necessary, whilst of course addressing the understandable concerns,” Flynn said.
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