The case for a “Yes alliance” at the 2015 General Election is gaining pace with two of the three SNP depute leadership hopefuls giving their backing.
In what is turning out to be a closely contested battle to replace Nicola Sturgeon as she steps up to become First Minister, two candidates are clearly aiming to capitalise on the spirit of the Yes campaign which many party members are keen to see continue.
Candidate hopeful, Stewart Hosie, said this week that his party should be looking at ways of working beyond party interests to maximise the participation of those who campaigned and voted for Yes.
The Dundee East MP said: “I have no doubt that the SNP can and will send the largest ever number of SNP MPs to Westminster at next year’s general election, but if we can build a Yes alliance, there is an opportunity to do even more than that.”
The other candidate to back an alliance is Angela Constance, MSP for Almond Valley, who has said it would be counter-productive for the independence-supporting parties to take votes from each other, but admitted that such a strategy would be a “hard ask for any political party, because it demands a degree of self-sacrifice for the greater good”.
In a bid to get the ball rolling and as part of her core strategy to appeal to the new members who came from the Yes movement, Angela Constance’s local branch has now put forward a motion for the party’s conference next month on the matter.
The practicalities of this remain to be worked out, but all the signals from the SNP membership is that there is a willingness to try.
It’s already understood in nationalist circles that leading members of the broader Yes campaign are actively being considered as potential candidates.
In contrast to the No campaign, which was led by politicians, the Yes movement led with people and certainly has a vast array of talent to offer in addition to those in the SNP.
Trust has been built up between the SNP members and the thousands of campaigners in the broader Yes movement who stood shoulder-to-shoulder for over two years. Therefore, allowing someone from outside of the SNP to stand, from one of the successful Yes sectoral groups such as Business for Scotland or Farmers for Yes, for example, may not be so difficult.
It may run into tricky territory if any SNP branches are asked to step down their candidate to allow a wider Yes candidate to stand, but I suspect the spirit of the campaign will carry this through.
On Sunday night I attended the SNP Depute Leadership hustings in Elgin, with more than 200 people there. And on Monday I went to my first SNP branch meeting since the referendum, which had to move to a bigger venue in the local Miners Welfare because over 900 new members have signed up locally since last month. Ironically, it’s where Labour used to hold their local meetings.
I spoke to several people there who had ripped up their Labour Party membership cards and joined the SNP following the referendum.
So while the SNP, as part of the Yes movement, may have lost the referendum. It seems they won the campaign.
As a consequence, they are in a highly favourable position to make gains at next year’s Westminster election while Labour’s support seems to be in freefall.
In yesterday’s YouGov poll, it suggested that the SNP will win up to 49% of the Scottish vote in May. This figure is a bit higher than most, so by looking at the spread of polls between October 14 – 21 you get a more accurate picture, with the SNP on 42% and Labour on 25%.
Basically, the SNP is set to more than double its support from the previous 2010 election.
It seems Scotland’s highly politicised electorate see the SNP as the only vehicle to deliver more powers and ultimately, independence.
Confidence ratings in Westminster leaders are at an all time low in Scotland, which is no wonder. The scale of the broken promise to Scotland has been too much for many. One day Cameron and Co promised to hand over “extensive new powers”, the next, David Cameron announced he would act swiftly to ensure Scottish MPs had less power. You couldn’t make it up.
Yesterday the Smith commission met for the first time. What would be in the best interest of the unionist parties is to deliver what they promised, and get behind Scottish Home Rule via this commission. But it’s unlikely to happen.
What is likely to emerge is a renewed SNP returning its highest ever number of MPs. If this is done through some form of a Yes alliance, then the numbers will be even greater and Scotland may have a real chance of holding not only Westminster leaders to account for their broken promises to Scotland, but also the balance of power.