SNP backs Swinney’s ‘clear’ strategy for new independence referendum | Scottish National party (SNP)

SNP members overwhelmingly backed leader John Swinney’s “clear and obvious” independence strategy that winning a majority election was the only route to a new referendum.

On the first day of the party’s annual conference in Aberdeen, a majority of members backed the leadership’s motion that next May’s Holyrood election should be held “on a clear platform of national independence” and that gaining a majority in the Scottish parliament (taking 65 or more seats) would be “arguably the only way to hold a new vote on the future of Scotland”.

After a passionate and sometimes quite technical debate, the conference rejected the rebel amendment brought by more than 40 local branches, which laid out a more fundamentalist strategy of treating next year’s elections as a de facto referendum; This means that if the SNP and other pro-independence parties win a majority of the popular vote in 2026, this should be seen as a mandate to open independence negotiations directly.

This de facto idea was first put forward by former party leader and first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who herself admitted it was a “mistake” in her recent memoirs.

Echoing the confidence reported by SNP strategists in the Guardian yesterday, Swinney told the packed conference room that “we are so close to 65 seats that will make the world sit up and take notice” and called on the party to step back with a “clear, unambiguous message” to the public. Deputy leader Keith Brown, who backed the motion, told delegates: “The only way to achieve independence is to ask a clear question and get a clear answer.”

This call for clarity is crucial: although independence is not high on voters’ list of priorities, activists have unhappy memories of trying to explain what many believed was on the doorstep of a fatally muddled independence strategy in which the SNP lost 38 of 48 Westminster seats, humiliated by a resurgent Labor Party.

A year later, the party’s pivot to its core message has been a sign of renewed confidence, with the SNP once again leading the polls ahead of Scottish Labor and Reform UK, and the understanding that the battleground demographic of the upcoming campaign consists of “soft yes” independence supporters who are moving away from the party.

Speaking in favor of de facto change, veteran activist Graeme McCormick insisted it was not proposed by “romantic nationalists”. He warned that the SNP was being “gutted” by failing to inspire its members to call for a new referendum date.

Former MP Tommy Sheppard said it was “remarkable” that such a detailed discussion could take place publicly and in front of the media at such a large conference, but insisted there was no “quick fix”. “We have been chasing the next election for too long,” he said, arguing that the party needed a strategy to carry this into the 2030s and deepen support for independence.

Whatever the leadership’s optimism, a majority remains a high bar given Holyrood’s proportional electoral system; The SNP has only won a majority once, in 2011 under Alex Salmond.

Keir Starmer has repeatedly said he will not give Holyrood the power to hold a second vote on independence.