Democracy Requires Mainstream Brexit Case – Ex-Scottish Party Leader

Democracy requires a mainstream case to be made for the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, former leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Gordon Wilson told Sputnik Thursday.

EDINBURGH (Sputnik), Mark Hirst – His comments come on the same day former SNP Deputy Leader Jim Sillars published a pamphlet calling on Scottish independence supporters to back the so-called Brexit.

"With only two percent of parliamentary representation, [Sillars] paper will be thought provoking as usual and given that there is no mainline opposition to the European Union (EU) in Scotland, at least at power elite level, democracy requires some expression of the Leave case," Wilson highlighted.

The current leadership of the Scottish National Party is campaigning strongly for the United Kingdom to remain part of the European bloc, however, it has warned that a second Scottish independence referendum could be sparked if Scotland backs continued EU membership but the rest of the country backs Brexit.

Wilson, who led the party for 11 years, added that Scotland would likely have to serve a "probationary position" outside the European Union as an independent country before it were allowed back into the bloc if there was a UK-wide backing for Brexit.

"The European Union cannot support Scotland splitting off from the United Kingdom given the fissile tendencies in other states such as Spain, Northern Italy and Belgium. The only way Scotland could get in is by applying from the outside as an independent nation and that may involve a probationary position," Wilson said.

The key issue is independence and how it can be achieved, however, without independence, the SNP will have to dodge the issue of how Scotland can have any material interest in doing deals in the European Union with only six members of the European Parliament and no state membership in put to decision making, he outlined.

Sillars’ pamphlet, “The Logical case — Why ScotLeave.EU makes most sense”, is an open attack on the current SNP leadership’s policy of being pro-EU membership which he describes as “incoherent”.

UK nationals are set to vote on June 23 in a referendum on the country's EU membership, after UK Prime Minister David Cameron and the leaders of the 27 other European Union member states reached a deal in February to grant the United Kingdom a special status within the bloc.