MP says ‘bouncing’ country into Indyref2 will end in failure

A HIGH-FLYING SNP MP has warned his party will be rejected by voters if it tries to “bounce” the country into a second referendum on independence.

Defence spokesman Stewart Mcdonald also said it would be the “height of irresponsibility” to try and rehash the Yes campaign of 2014, and its tenor needed to “utterly change”.

He said the SNP still had to renew its case for leaving the UK and should rethink its past assertion that independence could be delivered within 18 months of a Yes vote.

His warnings come amid splits in the Yes movement - including among SNP politicians – about the timing of another referendum.

SNP MP Angus Brendan Macneil has called for a fresh vote this year, while former SNP MP George Kerevan has urged civil disobedience and blockading the London Underground to secure another referendum.

However on the “Not Another Fake Newscast” podcast, Mr Mcdonald said the time was not right, not least because of the chaos over Brexit, and he took a “softy, slowly viewpoint”. He said: “If we force a question in front of people while all this [Brexit] is going on, I don’t think the people would thank us.

“It’s clear from the general election we had in 2017, if we try and bounce it on folk, they’ll reject us.

“I don’t see how that helps the Scottish independence movement. We’ve got to learn from our own mistakes, and it was quite clear from... 2017 that the prospect of a referendum on independence coming any time soon was not one that the public relished.”

The Glasgow South MP said the SNP had to take a different approach to another referendum.

He said: “I think the Yes campaign [of 2014] was a good campaign, but it didn’t win. So it’s only right we think about how do we redo this.

“People have to see that we’ve gone away and thought about it.

“It has to look, sound and feel differently in my view, not just to people we’re trying to persuade, but to people who we will want to go sell this stuff on the doors as well.

“It would be the height of irresponsibility to ask Yes supporters to go and sell what we were trying to sell in 2014, or even that case with some tinkering around the edges.”