Humza Yousaf defends Scottish independence plan as Labour questions mandate

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Humza Yousaf has defended a plan to start negotiations on independence if his party wins the most seats in Scotland at the next general election.SNP members will be asked to support a motion endorsed by the First Minister and Stephen Flynn when they gather in Aberdeen next month.It claims that if the party wins most Scottish seats at next year's UK election, SNP ministers would be "empowered to begin immediate negotiations with the UK Government to give democratic effect to Scotland becoming an independent country".But Labour ruled out talks on independence if it took power at Westminster.Speaking on a by-election campaign visit in Burnside today, Yousaf was asked what he would do if a future Labour prime minister ignored his demands for talks on ending the Union."It's really a question for Keir Starmer," he said. "If we are given another mandate from the people of Scotland, to put independence into democratic effect, who is he to deny the people of Scotland?"My belief is that Westminster parties are denying us because they fear the verdict of the Scottish people."The SNP leader insisted that a referendum remained his "plan A" to achieve independence.The UK Government has repeatedly rejected demands for an IndyRef2 and insisted the result of the 2014 vote must be respected.Yousaf continued: "Our plan A remains, of course, to test the proposition for popular support. "No one in the SNP is rejecting or blocking that from happening.

It’s the Westminster parties."So we have to accept they are not going to allow us to test that proposition for popular support, so I believe we have to use the next election to do that."And the way we’ll test it is by the rules of a general election, he who wins the most seats, wins that general