SNP members are set to hold a second rebel meeting to challenge John Swinney’s independence strategy, The National can reveal.
Party members are set to hold a meeting in September in Glasgow, ahead of the conference in Aberdeen the following month.
It is understood that the Glasgow Kelvin branch has drafted a motion to challenge Swinney’s three-point strategy.
This follows more than 40 SNP branches backing a separate challenge to the First Minister’s independence strategy, who are set to hold a meeting in Perth on August 9.
The resolution states that while members believe the SNP is the only party to deliver independence, a “new strategy is required”.
It states that the next step should be to convince a “significant majority” of people in Scotland to support independence.
“Determining this as the settled will of the majority will be demonstrated by ongoing national opinion polls over an extended time period,” it adds.
It argues that to achieve this, the party should provide “credible, objective and impartial” answers on questions voters have about independence, as well as separating the issue from “day-to-day issues regarding the governance of Scotland”.
The motion then calls on the SNP leadership to engage with non-political groups and political parties as a “matter of urgency” on the issue of independence.
It adds that this should be “with a view to articulating as far as possible a common prospectus for independence and establishing a cross-party and non-party campaign to ensure that these objectives are firmly established before the next Holyrood elections”.
The National understands that former [[SNP]] MEP and MP Alyn Smith was consulted during the drafting of the resolution, and then invited members from the Kelvin branch to outline the plan to members in Stirling.
And now, Glasgow [[SNP]] branches will be invited to an event on Saturday September 20 at The Boardwalk Theatre, where Smith will be joined by professor John Curtice and professor Nicola McEwen.
After the experts give their talks, members will be presented with the Kelvin branch’s motion, and asked to vote on it.
We previously told how members unhappy with Swinney’s strategy argued that the party should “prioritise obtaining a mandate from the sovereign Scottish people to deliver independence”.
They argued this would be achieved with a majority vote for pro-independence parties at the next election. Whereas Swinney has insisted that an SNP majority is the most credible route forward.
