PRO-independence parties should have the "right to choose" independence at the "front and centre" of their Holyrood election manifestos, a former MP has said.
Tommy Sheppard, ex-MP for Edinburgh East, made the comments at the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) annual congress in Dundee, during an event organised by the SNP Trade Union Group (TUG) on Scotland’s political future.
Sheppard said that the Yes movement has “a big challenge in front of it” and that campaigners needed to shift the focus away from the broader issue of independence towards the “right to choose” to hold a referendum.
He said that achieving independence was no longer a “political priority” for voters, adding: “What’s more important is that they don’t understand the connection between them placing their vote on a ballot paper and Scotland becoming an independent country.
“The challenge for next year’s elections is to get a mandate, not for independence in the short term, but to get a mandate for the right to choose and the need to change the constitutional law of the United Kingdom to allow that right to be exercised.
“That is what should be front and centre of everybody’s manifesto for the elections next year.”
Speaking in Dundee, the former MP also reflected on the current Labour Government as he claimed it was “exhausting the alternatives”, leading more people to consider Scottish independence.
He said: “We have a government that is an immense disappointment not just in terms of what it’s doing, but in terms of what it’s not prepared to do. A government that is elected allegedly from the left that sets its position by saying we are not going to change the balance of power and wealth in society, is one that is always going to run into problems.
“That’s not because there are bad people in the Labour Party or because there’s some conspiracy, I think that it is because there is a structural problem with the governance of these Islands and of the state of the United Kingdom.
“It is pretty nigh impossible – and I cite the last 100 years of history as my evidence for this – to achieve significant and lasting reform in that society, because the powerful interests that you’re competing with are so great that any social democratic party is going to have to make so many compromises in order to stay in office that it will lose the mandate and the political support which got it elected in the first place.”
He continued: “If the Labour Government is doing one thing, it is exhausting the alternatives, and there comes a point – many of us went through this with the last Labour government – where people run out of confidence in the things they used to know and trust, that they will consider alternatives.
“That’s why I think the polls are showing that there’s a majority of people in Scotland that want to consider political independence for the country.”
The STUC annual congress sees trade union members come together from across the country to discuss policy and elect a new general council.
During this year's congress, members have backed calls for “practical” solutions to tackle the rise of the far-right, warning the UK and Scottish governments that they are not “off the hook”.
First Minister John Swinney also addressed members on Monday, where he reiterated his "commitment" to trans rights and that his Government would work with the STUC "to ensure that we deliver for the people of Scotland".
Writing for The National on Monday, Sheppard spoke of the need for the independence and trade union movements to work together.
Sheppard told trade union members in Dundee: “There is a growing consensus in the trade union movement that people should have the right to choose and that that right should reside in Scotland.
“It’s already more or less the policy of the Scottish trade union movement, but it needs to be animated and pushed and we need to do something about it.
“We have a job to do in the trade union movement, both to educate our own party in the SNP about the importance of the trade union movement in Scotland and its importance to achieving change in the way in which we’re governed.
“I don’t think it’s possible to see a journey to Scottish independence without the support of the trade union movement – it’s certainly not possible for that exercise to be successful and be sustained without that support.”
