Wings party would target list seats

A Wings Over Scotland party would aim to win seats from unionist parties to increase the number of proindependence members at Holyrood, Stuart Campbell has said.

Mr Campbell, who runs the Wings Over Scotland website, said such a party would seek to pick up list seats at the next Scottish election in 2021 if another independence referendum has not been delivered by that time.

He said there are no great plans currently being made to set up a Wings party, however, and he has not yet decided whether he would run as a candidate in an election – although

“Don’t want to vote for far-left parties”

he suggested it was likely he would.

On the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme yesterday Mr Campbell said: “The SNP’s votes on the regional list get badly wasted by the Holyrood electoral system.”

He added: “The fact is that people simply don’t want to vote for far-left parties like the Greens or the SSP or Rise.”

Mr Campbell said suggestions the Wings party would be set up to take on the SNP were an “inaccurate description of the situation”.

He added: “If they do hold a referendum before 2021, then categorically the Wings party will not happen, that’s the whole point.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Greens said: “It was uncharacteristically generous of Stuart Campbell to describe the Scottish Greens as ‘too radical’ for his fans.”