Katrine Bussey, Press Association Scotland Political Editor
The cause of Scottish independence is “bigger than any party”, the Scottish Green co-leader has said, with Gillian Mackay insisting the votes of SNP and Green voters alone will not be enough to win a second referendum.
Ms Mackay, who will address the SNP conference on Saturday, said the two parties need to “build the broadest possible movement for Scotland’s right to choose”.
But her inclusion in a panel session discussing independence at the Aberdeen conference tomorrow is said to have provoked an angry reaction from some members of the SNP.
The two parties had previously worked together in the Scottish Government, but the so-called Bute House agreement ended dramatically when then first minister Humza Yousaf called time on the powersharing deal.
Ms Mackay, however, said she was “delighted” so be speaking at the SNP conference, adding she would be “discussing how we can best take the independence movement forward”.
But she stressed: “Independence is bigger than any party. SNP supporters and Green supporters alone are not enough to secure a sustained pro-independence majority and to secure the referendum that we need.
“We need to reach beyond our own parties, bring more people with us and build the broadest possible movement for Scotland’s right to choose our own future.”
The Scottish Green co-leader said: “Scotland’s future is too important to be held back by party boundaries, and we need an open, ambitious conversation about how we build the movement that our country needs.
“With the cost of living soaring and our climate breaking down around us, I know that the best people to make decisions about Scotland’s future are the people who live here.”
Ms Mackay told how she had voted against independence in the 2014 referendum, saying she had “believed what Labour and others told me about protecting our place in Europe”.
But she said: “Twelve years on, those promises have been exposed, and Scotland has been taken out of the EU against our will.”
With May’s Holyrood election having seen 73 pro-independence MSPs elected – 58 from the SNP and 15 from the Scottish Greens – Ms Mackay said that was the “largest pro-independence majority in the history of our Parliament”.
And she added: “We must build on that mandate, bring people from across the independence movement together and turn that support into the chance to take our own path.”
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