Delay referendum or risk losing again, MP warns

Indyref2: Wishart says he has lost voters to Tories over independence push

The SNP is losing votes to the Tories by pursuing an early independence referendum, says a senior Nationalist MP.

Pete Wishart, who represents Perth and North Perthshire, said there is not enough public enthusiasm for another vote and called on Nicola Sturgeon to hold fire.

Ms Sturgeon says she will update MSPS on her plans for Indyref2 in the autumn, when the impact of Brexit is likely to be clearer.

In a letter to the independencesupporting iscot magazine, Mr Wishart said: “It was not unusual for people to tell me that they had voted for me in previous elections, but were now voting Conservative to stop an early independence referendum.

“There were also SNP voters who I found difficult to motivate because they had voted for Brexit and were unhappy in what they saw as our haste to rejoin the European Union as an independent nation.”

Warning of the dangers of moving too quickly on independence, he said: “There is only one thing that determines my approach to a second independence referendum and that is winning it.

“Losing again is simply unthinkable and we have to ensure that we are as pragmatic as possible in ensuring that next time we get over the line.”

The First Minister shelved her demand, made in the aftermath of the Brexit result, for a fresh vote between late 2018 and early 2019 after her party lost nearly 500,000 votes in last year’s general election.

She says a referendum before the next Holyrood election in 2021 – when the party could lose its pro-independence majority – is still likely.

Mr Wishart, who held his seat by just 21 votes in June, decided against running for the party’s deputy leadership, saying his call for a gradualist approach to Indyref2 and returning to the EU fold did not go down well with core support.

He remains an influential figure in the party as its longest-serving MP and chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster.

Sir John Curtice, the Strathclyde University pollster, published a study in October that found Yes voters who backed leaving the EU helped the Scottish Conservatives achieve their revival in 2017.

Murdo Fraser, the Perthshire-based Tory MSP, said: “The people of Scotland have now told the SNP in repeated elections that they don’t want another referendum.

“It shouldn’t have taken the Nationalists this long to take that on board.

“But we won’t be fooled by a blog post by one of the SNP’S most erratic politicians.

“Independence remains the party’s one and only ambition.”

gmcpherson@thecourier.co.uk

Picture: Chris Austin. Perth MP Pete Wishart says people have told him they were voting Tory to halt another independence referendum.