Corbyn ‘will help SNP split UK’
SENIOR SNP figures have called for an alliance with Jeremy Corbyn – saying this would be a ‘midwife’ for Scottish independence.
Tommy Sheppard and Anne McLaughlin, both SNP MPs, said a pact with Labour would help them win a second referendum on breaking up the union.
The pair argued that as a ‘swansong’ before independence, the SNP could help form a Left-wing government and reform the voting system so it becomes harder for the Tories to get into power.
Theresa May has warned of a ‘coalition of chaos’ after Nicola Sturgeon last week threatened to help Mr Corbyn into Downing Street by propping up a Labour government. Last night it emerged that in a document earlier this month, Mr Sheppard, the MP for Edinburgh East, and Miss McLaughlin, the MP for Glasgow North East, said a pact involving Labour would boost their bid to split up the UK.
‘Being part of a progressive alliance in the UK can allow us to explain and promote the progressive case for Scottish independence and help build support for the proposition,’ they wrote.
The paper also argued: ‘The midwife of that process will be our progressive alliance, determined to win political power in order to transform our country.’
It said that by supporting a Labour government, the SNP could help ‘remove the fear and misunderstanding that surrounded the argument’ during the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence. The MPs even suggested they could help remove the first-past-the-post system, to make it less likely that the Tories win in the UK after Scotland leaves.
‘As an independent country, Scotland would much rather deal with that than face a hostile neighbour forever covered in Tory permafrost,’ they wrote. ‘We have long campaigned for proportional representation and will continue to do so.’
Scottish First Minister Miss Sturgeon yesterday insisted the general election has nothing to do with her demand for a second independence referendum.
Opinion polls showed the SNP losing thousands of Scottish votes and up to ten seats to the Tories. Another survey, in the Kantar Scottish Opinion Monitor, found only a quarter of Scots support Miss Sturgeon’s call for a referendum between autumn 2018 and spring 2019.