Ash Regan came third place in the SNP’s leadership contest, but the party’s ‘rebel’ candidate is still fighting hard for her policies – and yesterday she saw a glimmer of success. The SNP has announced that on 24 June it will hold an ‘independence convention’ to take the place of a de facto referendum conference planned by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Though she only received 11 per cent of the first preference membership vote, Regan has not sat still since her defeat in March. Last week, she questioned the new (and controversially appointed) minister for independence, Jamie Hepburn, on this in Holyrood:
‘I think that a cohesive, vibrant, creative cross-party wider movement is important for designing a successful campaign, for presenting that united front and then going on to win majority public support [for independence]. Would the minister agree with me that establishing an independence convention is not only imperative right now, it is also urgent?’
Hepburn was reluctant to commit too much at the time – and yet Regan’s persistence appears to have, at least partly, paid off. On
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