‘SNP must convince voters born outside Scotland to win indyref2’

A senior SNP adviser has claimed Nationalists must do more to convince voters born outside of Scotland to back independence if they are to win a second referendum.

Andrew Wilson, author of the party’s Growth Commission report, said the fact that a majority of those who were born north of the Border voted for Yes in 2014 counted for little if most voters who had chosen to live in the country rejected it.

The former SNP MSP said Yes campaigners must stress that independence was “not a rejection of shared endeavour” between Scotland and other nations in the UK.

Mr Wilson added that voters from the rest of the UK living in Scotland would not be convinced to back an indyref2 if campaigners played “hardball”.

But the Tories said there was no demand among voters for a second referendum – regardless of where they were born.

“Tellingly, 72 per cent of people born in the rest of the UK voted against independence,” Mr Wilson wrote in a column for a Scottish daily newspaper.

“Their concerns and those of their family and friends in the rest of the UK clearly weighed heavily and were not adequately addressed by the Yes side. Lessons must be learned there too. They represent around half a million votes, including more than 460,000 from England alone.”

Mr Wilson continued: “First and foremost, it is not a rejection of 300 years of shared endeavour. It is not a severing of our economic, social, family or cultural ties – they will maintain and flourish. It is a political choice about how we are governed.”

Scottish Conservative chief whip Maurice Golden MSP said: “Andrew Wilson will find whether you were born in Scotland or outside of it the opinion is the same – there is no demand for indyref2.”