Nicola Sturgeon will ramp up her efforts to broaden public support for independence at today’s launch of the SNP’s long-awaited push to win over No voters.
The First Minister will use a speech in Stirling to try to breathe new life into the case for separation following the UK-wide vote to leave the EU.
She said while all options are being explored to save Scotland’s links with Brussels, the debate “must include an examination of independence in what are profoundly changed circumstances”.
The SNP leader is expected to say: “The UK that existed before June 23 has fundamentally changed.
“The debate now is whether we should go forward, protecting our place as a European nation or go backwards, under a Tory government with very different priorities.
“And while we will pursue all options to protect our interests, the debate must include an examination of independence in what are profoundly changed circumstances
“To ensure that the voice of everyone in Scotland is heard in these changed times, I am today launching Scotland’s biggest ever political listening exercise – a new conversation and a new debate for these new times.”
SNP strategists hope the speech will mark the start of a national campaign that will convert thousands of No voters towards the independence cause.
Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie was supposed to lead a summer drive to win over independence sceptics, but that fell by the wayside after the Brexit vote and allegations about the former depute leader’s private life.
In June, the vast majority of MSPs – including Labour and the Liberal Democrats representatives – lent their support to the First Minister’s efforts to maintain Scotland’s relationship with the EU.
Both parties demanded assurances from Ms Sturgeon that the initiative was not merely a smoke-screen for another constitutional vote.
Scottish Labour and the Liberal Democrats have now reaffirmed they will oppose any move to hold a second referendum on independence.
A spokesman for the First Minister insisted it was “profoundly mistaken” to believe her stance was different, claiming it remained “unchanged” since the vote on Holyrood’s response to Brexit.
Speaking as she launched her party’s plan for the new parliament yesterday, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: “We are opposed to a second referendum in the lifetime of this parliament.”
Earlier, Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Willie Rennie said the cross-party consensus on Brexit is “consigned to the dustbin”.
He added: “When she brings forward her legislation for another independence referendum we will vote No.”
Despite the opposition of Labour and the Liberal Democrats, there is a pro-independence majority at Holyrood, with the Scottish Green Party’s five MSPs supporting a Yes vote in 2014.