The Scottish National Party (SNP) has gathered in Edinburgh this weekend to lick its wounds after its disastrous performance in July’s UK general election, when it lost 39 of its 48 Westminster seats.
Thousands of members are at the party’s three-day annual conference. It publicly opened with what has been perceived as an olive branch to rival nationalist outfit Alba, which was founded by former SNP leader Alex Salmond.
In the opening public address to the main hall, Keith Brown, depute leader of the SNP, floated the possibility that it could co-operate with other pro-independence parties, such as Alba, on a broad “convention” to jointly push for a referendum to quit the UK.
“This convention will unite with every willing element of civic Scotland, committed to the principle of self-determination. We need to demonstrate this support through every democratic means available,” he said.
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Mr Salmond, who quit the party in acrimony after falling out with its former leader Nicola Sturgeon, has previously called for pro-independence parties, which would also include the Scottish Greens, to work together.
Several senior SNP figures have previously dismissed the idea, however. Mr Brown’s intervention has stirred fresh debate this weekend within the party, which has seen all of its previous efforts for a new referendum stymied by the UK government in Westminster.
The SNP gathering at Edinburgh’s International Conference Centre appears to be a relatively muted affair, with the number of attendees well down on previous years, especially compared to its recent political heyday under Ms Sturgeon. Since quitting last year she was arrested by police investigating the SNP’s finances, but has declared her innocence.
The conference last year was held at a cavernous facility in Aberdeen which was far too big for the then already-declining number of attendees, prompting organisers to switch to the smaller Edinburgh conference centre this year.
Earlier in the morning before Mr Brown’s address John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, was grilled at a closed session by members over the party’s poor performance in the UK election in July. Labour trounced the SNP in Scotland, and will now challenge it to lead the Scottish devolved government at the next Holyrood election in 2026.
Later in the afternoon deputy first minister Kate Forbes, who is also the minister in charge of the economy in Scotland’s devolved administration, tried to lift members’ spirits with an upbeat assessment of Scotland’s economic potential. She highlighted Scotland’s huge food and drink exports and the large crowds that recently flocked to Edinburgh for its festivals as evidence of the opportunities open to the country.
“If only we would see ourselves as others see us,” she said, criticising the “doom and gloom” that she said characterises much economic debate in Scotland.
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