SNP backs revised plan for Scottish independence referendum

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The SNP has backed a change in its independence strategy, saying it will demand a new vote “mandate” to break away from the UK if it wants to win a majority in Scotland at the next UK general election.

SNP leader Humza Youssef has won strong support at the party’s annual conference in calling for the party to win a simple majority of Scotland’s 57 seats at Westminster.

Since losing the first vote in 2014 by 55% to 45%, pro-independence parties have struggled to develop a coherent plan to overcome the British government’s refusal to grant them the power to hold a second independence referendum.

Earlier this year it abandoned a strategy set by former party leader Nicola Sturgeon, which said it would need to win more than 50% of the Scottish vote in a general election to be seen as entitled to a fight with Britain. The government begins negotiations for another independence referendum.

Because the British electoral system adopts a first-past-the-post system, the Scottish National Party, which has been in power in Scotland since 2007, can theoretically obtain a simple majority of seats – a total of 29 seats – without winning more than half of the votes.

“Getting a majority is a victory, plain and simple,” said Humza Yousaf, who is presiding over the meeting for the first time since taking over from Sturgeon in March. “If we win a majority, we will have the right to start negotiations with the British government on how to achieve independence,” he said.

Yusuf, who has been trying to heal internal divisions and stabilize the SNP, called on members to unite behind their main goal of gaining independence after a police investigation into its finances plunged the SNP into further chaos.

“As we decide together and democratically as a party the way forward (independence strategy), let us unite because our unity is our greatest strength as a party,” he said.

Youssef suffered a double blow last week when the SNP lost wider-than-expected defeats to Labor in Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-elections outside Glasgow, followed by East Kilbride MP Lisa Kammer Lun defected to Britain’s ruling Conservative Party.

This leaves the SNP with 43 Westminster seats in Scotland, the Conservatives with seven and Labor with two. Britain’s two largest political parties support trade unions.

Labor, which is well ahead of the Conservatives in opinion polls, is aiming to deliver a renaissance in Scotland at next year’s general election to help boost its chances of forming a majority government. Recent polls suggest the SNP will lose many seats.

Sturgeon adopted plans to push for a second referendum after Britain’s Supreme Court ruled last year that she did not have the legal power to hold a referendum unilaterally without Westminster’s consent. Pro-union parties said they would not accept the result being used as a mandate to divide the UK.