Brown bemoans rift on indy

The SNP’s depute leader has said it is “unfortunate” different parts of the independence movement attack each other after a spat between the party and an activist group.

All Under One Banner (AUOB) – the organiser of some of the most substantial nationalist marches and rallies in recent years – accused the SNP of being “contemptuous” on Sunday after it emerged a special convention on independence would be held on the same day as one of its events.

The delayed conference was first due in March, but was postponed after Nicola Sturgeon resigned.

At the weekend, the SNP said it would now be on June 24 – the same day as an AUOB march in Stirling.

In a tweet the group said: “We wrote to Humza inviting him to speak at Stirling 24

June, and received a weird reply – swiftly followed by news he’s chosen to clash with the national demonstration by holding an SNP conference on the same day.

“Why? Reactionary and contemptuous. De facto anti-YES behaviour.”

But speaking to BBC Radio Scotland yesterday, Keith Brown said: “I think it’s unfortunate when parts of the Yes movement have that kind of go at each other, to be honest.

“I’ve attended any number of AUOB marches, have spoken at many of them indeed, and in this case this is the last week before the summer recess, this is the date which the SNP need to have its discussion on.”

The former Scottish Government minister added that the SNP was “perfectly entitled” to discuss its strategy on independence, saying: “We’re not going to achieve independence without a wider Yes movement, just as the wider Yes movement won’t achieve it without the SNP.”

According to Scotland’s independence minister Jamie Hepburn, using the UK general election as a “de facto referendum” is still on the table, despite Humza Yousaf distancing himself from the idea.

Mr Brown, challenged on such a move yesterday, with Westminster possibly refusing to engage once again, said: “It’s the UK Government that is acting peculiarly, wrongly and in my view like a rogue state.

“We are trying to find a democratic route.”

Scottish Tory constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said of Mr Brown: “He is whipping up his rhetoric because he knows that breaking up the United

Kingdom is the only thing his divided party still agree on.”

Scottish Lib Dem MSP Willie Rennie said: “There is no special conference on helping the one in seven Scots on a waiting list, no special conference on getting islanders the ferries that have never arrived... the SNP are increasingly out of touch.”

Ex-SNP leader Alex Salmond – who now heads the Alba Party – hit out at the convention, claiming it should “be a broad and inclusive political and civic gathering of the independence movement”.

“To have any impact at all it clearly has to reach beyond any one political party,” he added. “The SNP is entitled to have its own meetings to sort out its own policy but not to suggest it can represent an entire movement.”

STRATEGY: The SNP’s depute leader, Keith Brown.