Campaigners split as two factions clash over cash
A major Scottish independence movement has split in a bitter dispute over cash donations.
The All Under One Banner (AUOB) group is behind huge saltire-waving rallies that attract tens of thousands of supporters across the country.
But the Sunday Mail can reveal organisers of the grassroots campaign are at war over money raised in collection buckets.
Bill McKinnon, a director of AUOB Ltd, claims he paid for security, toilets and staging at events in Dundee, Bannockburn and Inverness, as well as bills for a huge march to take place in Edinburgh on October 6. But he has been left furious by a breakaway group led by Manny Singh, who has formed a new company called AUOB Scotland Ltd and retained collection money, it is claimed.
Singh meanwhi le claims that the new entity wa s c r e a t ed a f t e r McKinnon refused to step down for “spreading lies”, and running a rogue “double bucket” operation.
In May, 60,000 people attended an AUOB rally in Glasgow and SNP MP Stewart Hosie went to the Dundee event where 16,000 took to the streets.
McKinnon said: “I’ve put a lot of my own money into this so what ’ s happening is sickening.
“They’re tr y ing to portray me as the bad guy.
“I feel completely undermined by this. You’ve no idea how this is affecting my life.
“I’ve been in charge of all the accounts because I’ve a squeaky clean financial record.
“Every aspect of what I’ve done has been audited, but I’ve no access to the bucket collection funds from the last three marches.
“I’ve handled money from online crowd funding and I’ve paid all the expenses for marches – including a big event coming up in Edinburgh where we expect up to 100,000 people.
“AUOB Scotland has taken control of collection buckets – the funds haven’t been deposited in our account so I can’t say where those funds are.
“This dispute has been ongoing since June, so it covers marches in Dundee, Bannockburn and Inverness.
“An enormous amount of cash could be potentially raised in Edinburgh and I don’t know where that’s going. The new group want us to