Gina Davidson: Will split advance the independence cause?
● Thompson to launch new party in a fortnight
A former SNP MSP is quitting the party to form a new political alliance in a bid to return up to 80 pro-independence MSPS to Holyrood at next year’s elections.
David Thompson, a member of the SNP for 55 years will launch the new party, Alliance for Independence, within a fortnight, and hopes to secure up to 24 MSPS through the regional list, to add to what he believes will be another electoral victory for the SNP.
However his hopes that the other pro-independence parties such as the Scottish Greens and the Scottish Socialist Party will join his Alliance to “max the Yes vote”, was struck a blow when both parties moved to distance themselves from the proposal. Mr Thompson said plans for the Alliance were drawn up by a steering group of around 70 SNP members and others in February this year, in the belief that asking independence supporters to vote SNP on the regional list, as well as in their constituency seats, was a wasted vote.
Mr Thompson said: “Of course the SNP will want people to vote for them twice and that’s their prerogative but we want to see as many pro-independence MSPS returned, and on the list vote, a million votes returning just four SNP MSPS on the list is not good value.
“We want to make certain there’s a big independence majority in next year’s Parliament - 80 to 90 independence supporting MSPS, sending a strong message that the Scottish people want independence.”
He said he hoped other proindependence parties would put their candidates on the ballot paper under the Alliance name, “though they can run their own campaigns and have their own manifestos, so can still be a Green, or in Solidarity. Our only stipulation is they will support a pro-independence government. Or they can be independents, imagine having 24 Margo Macdonald’s in Holyrood?”
The AFI will hold a conference in September to ratify its constitution and would register with the Electoral Commission, he said.
He added: “When we launch we will be inviting the Greens, SSP, Solidarity and the new
Independence for Scotland party, and hope they will work with is to maximise the Yes vote, but time will tell if they decide to join or not.
“The SNP are going to be the largest party, and possibly may even have a majority in their own right, but if not they would have a far bigger pool of people to work with to get their policies through.”
Mr Thompson, whose win in 2007 by just one vote, tipped the balance of power in Holyrood from Labour to the SNP, was commenting just days after veteran SNP MP Kenny Macaskill also floated the idea of a separate pro-independence party standing in next year’s Holyrood election.
However both the SSP and the Scottish Greens said they were not interested in joining Mr Thompson’s Alliance. Colin Fox of the SSP said: “I think people who want to put more pro-indy MSPS in Parliament next year should vote for the Scottish Socialist Party. Single issue ‘alliances’ tend not to cope well with complex multi-issue elections. And I don’t see the SNP making independence the central issue in 2021 either.”
Scottish Greens Co-leader Lorna Slater said: “Scottish Greens are ever present at Holyrood, having elected MSPS at every Scottish Parliament election. Polling suggests we’ll return more MSPS than ever before next year, as part of an increased majority of pro-independence supporting MSPS. Voters in every part of Scotland will have the opportunity to vote for us in May.”
Constitution Secretary Mike Russell Mr Thompson was “mistaken in his analysis” and an SNP spokesman said: “Talk of splitting the SNP vote will be music to the ears of the Unionists. Those seeking to game the Holyrood proportional electoral system are putting at risk the SNP’S progress.”