The SNP must try to “inspire” Scots who voted No in last year’s independence referendum to support the party as it seeks to win a historic third term at Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon will say.
Putting her party on an “election footing” ahead of next year’s Scottish Parliament election in her opening speech to the SNP conference in Aberdeen, the First Minister is also expected to address the issue of a second referendum on Scottish independence and make a significant announcement on housing policy.
Addressing the gathering of almost 5,000 delegates, observers, exhibitors and journalists, Ms Sturgeon will urge her party to use the conference as an opportunity to “begin to set out our claim to lead Scotland confidently into the next decade”.
She will say: “For those who want Scotland to be independent, there is only one vote next year that makes sense – and that is a vote for the SNP. But I don’t just want to win the votes of independence supporters. I want to inspire people who voted No last year to vote SNP too.
“I want them to vote SNP because they know we are the best party, with the best ideas and the best people to lead Scotland forward. Everyone, from the strongest supporter of independence to the stoutest advocate of the Union, has the right to know that we will continue to govern well with the powers we have at any given time.”
The SNP’s autumn conference will be the largest in the party’s history, reflecting its huge surge in membership since the referendum campaign and its landslide victory in Scotland at the general election. Last year’s event in Perth had room for only 1,200 seats, but this year the figure is 4,765. There will also be three times the number of observers and three times as many fringe meetings.
Ian Murray, Labour’s shadow Scotland Secretary, said the SNP was “starting to look like the establishment in Scotland” and must be judged on its record in government. “The truth is that in our schools the gap between the richest and the rest is growing, and our hospitals are struggling,” he added.
