Brexit: MPs vote for general election on 12 December - as it happened

A Scottish majority for the SNP after the general election will show an “unequivocal and irresistible demand” for a second independence referendum, the party’s leader has claimed.

Nicola Sturgeon is expected to vow to “take the fight to the Tories” to keep Scotland in the EU and decide whether to remain part of the UK when she joins the party’s candidate for Stirling on the campaign trail on Wednesday. She said:

The SNP is ready for an election. We stand ready to take the fight to the Tories, to bring down this undemocratic government, and give Scotland the chance to escape from Brexit and decide our own future.

Scotland has been ignored and treated with contempt by Westminster, and this election is an opportunity to bring that to an end.

A win for the SNP will be an unequivocal and irresistible demand for Scotland’s right to choose our own future.

Ian Murray, one of seven Labour MPs north of the border, joked that it looks as though it would have to be a “Murray Christmas” after fighting off a deselection attempt spearheaded by Unite the union last week.

Jackson Carlaw MSP, the interim leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has claimed voting for his party will keep Scotland in the UK.

The choice for voters is this: Vote ScotTories to end the division and keep Scotland in the UK. A vote for anyone else risks Nicola Sturgeon winning and pushing ever harder for her unwanted and damaging independence referendum. We are ready and we are determined.

The Scottish Greens have said they will contest several seats, warning it will be “the most important one we’ve ever faced”. The party’s co-leader, Lorna Slater, has said:

We have just 10 years left to prevent climate breakdown but Westminster has been taken over by an authoritarian Tory government obsessed with forcing a disastrous Brexit on the country and doubling down on their climate-wrecking policies.

Instead of tackling the greatest risk to human life in history, the main parties at Westminster lurch from one crisis of their own making to another, which is why it is more important than ever that we have Green voices in there who are committed to a Scottish Green new deal, stopping Brexit and building a new progressive future for Scotland.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Willie Rennie, appeared to show excitement for the election:

The home secretary’s chief of staff was escorted out of a bar in parliamentby armed police earlier – just as MPs were voting on an election that Boris Johnson wants to make about law and order.

Two people who witnessed the incident say James Starkie was ordered out of Strangers bar after swearing loudly in the vicinity of a Tory MP, Col Bob Stewart, being refused service and appearing to punch a door.

As police escorted him out of the bar, which is frequented by MPs, witnesses said he apologised for his behaviour.

Starkie is a familiar face around Westminster as a former Vote Leave campaigner who went on to work for Michael Gove, before taking up his position as a senior adviser to Priti Patel. A House of Commons spokesperson said:

We can confirm there was an incident with an individual in Strangers bar. The individual was asked to leave, and was escorted from the estate by parliamentary security

Arlene Foster, the leader of the DUP, has welcomed a general election being held on 12 December:

It is right that the people of Northern Ireland have their say through the ballot box. The DUP will use this opportunity to campaign strongly to send a message that Northern Ireland is better in the union of the United Kingdom and we cannot be separated economically from Great Britain.

We have a record of speaking up for Northern Ireland in Westminster and delivering for everyone in Northern Ireland.

At a time of great uncertainty as to who will form the next government how Northern Ireland votes will matter as never before. Unionists need their strongest team returned to so that Northern Ireland’s interests are protected in the next parliament. That team is the DUP.

Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), has tweeted:

Earlier this month, CWU members working for Royal Mail backed strikes by 97% in a huge turnout of almost 76%, raising the threat of industrial action in the run-up to Christmas.

The former cabinet minister, John Whittingdale, has said the prime minister told the meeting that, while it would be a “tough election”, the Tories have “everything to play for”. Whittingdale added:

He said it wasn’t because we were ahead in the polls or the because of the horror of Corbyn but because we had no alternative; that parliament is deadlocked and the only way to solve that is to have a general election.

(He said) we would be taking the deal which he negotiated – and which defied all expectation in that it got all that we wanted – and we will be campaigning to ratify that deal and then get on with tackling the big agenda.

The senior Tory MP, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, said the prime minister was “pretty upbeat” about the Conservatives’ chances at an election.

Alistair Burt welcomed being one of the 10 Tory rebels readmitted to the parliamentary party. After leaving the 1922 Committee, he told reporters:

Back in the fold. It’s a big family and it’s very nice to have them back and I’m very appreciative. [Boris Johnson] is a born campaigner, no doubt about that.

Boris Johnson has told reporters it’s time for the country to “come together to get Brexit done” as he left the Conservative backbench MPs’ meeting.

Here’s a little more detail from HuffPost UK:

It is worth noting that Rees-Mogg has again declined to explicitly address whether or not the election of a new Commons speaker would go ahead before parliament is dissolved next Wednesday.

Asked about the matter for a second time in the Commons, he said he had nothing to add to his previous answer, which we summarised just a few moments ago.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has said:

This election is a once-in-a-generation chance to transform our country and take on the vested interests holding people back.

The choice at this election could not be clearer: A Labour government will be on your side; while Boris Johnson’s Conservatives, who think they’re born to rule, will only look after the privileged few.

We will now launch the most ambitious and radical campaign for real change that our country has ever seen. This is our chance to build a country for the many not the few and fit for the next generation.

Responding to the vote in parliament for a general election, the Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, has said:

This general election will decide the future of our country for generations. It is our best chance to elect a government to stop Brexit.

The Liberal Democrats are the strongest party of Remain and will be standing on a manifesto to stop Brexit by revoking article 50.

This country deserves better than Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn and I am excited to take our positive, pro-European, liberal vision to the country as the Liberal Democrat candidate for prime minister.

Boris Johnson received a rapturous reception as he arrived at a meeting of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee after his bid for an early general election cleared the Commons. Conservative MPs cheered and banged the table as he arrived for the meeting in parliament.

Asked whether the Commons will be electing a new speaker before it dissolves, Rees-Mogg says the dissolution date is Wednesday, so the Commons may be sitting on Monday and Tuesday.

The leader of the Commons, Jacob-Rees-Mogg, says he’ll set out tomorrow how the government intends to proceed for the rest of the week.

Also tomorrow, he says, the prime minister will address the Commons on the Grenfell inquiry’s report and MPs will discuss the Northern Ireland budget bill.

My colleague, Rowena Mason, has just published this on the vote for a general election on 12 December:

MPs will soon vote on whether or not to hold the early general election, with the date – assuming they back it – having now been set as 12 December.

The Independent Group for Change MP, Chris Leslie, tried to move an unexpected amendment but was denied by the deputy speaker, Eleanor Laing. She then makes way for the Speaker, John Bercow, who calls for MPs to vote on a third and final reading.

Just before MPs went off to vote, the Tory backbench MP Steve Baker warned that, if the Lords amended the early parliamentary general election bill, they would be “playing with their own futures”. Baker, the chairman of the hard Brexit-supporting European Research Group, told the Commons:

On a serious note, this bill of course has to go through [the Lords] and I think if the other place were to put in amendments to this simple and straightforward bill, which sought to produce a particular outcome, I think we would have to say they have no right whatever to do that.

That it would be quite unconstitutional and I think they would be playing fire and indeed they would be playing with their own futures in that House were they to seek to amend this bill to produce a particular outcome.

MPs are now voting on amendment 2, which would change the date of the election from Thursday 12 December to Monday 9 December.

Here’s a little more on Labour’s preparations for the likely December election: It’s understood that trigger ballots are to be halted and that Labour MPs will now be automatically reselected – subject to NEC approval and assuming they haven’t decided to retire.

Any selection meetings in key marginals that were scheduled for this week will still go ahead. In those constituencies where no such meeting was planned, the selection will now be handled by panels staffed by NEC members and regional and constituency party representatives.

A Labour spokesman said:

After the 2017 snap general election, we immediately began democratic selections to ensure Labour members would be able to choose their candidates. Members have selected candidates in almost 200 seats.

We’re more prepared than we’ve ever been at this stage in the parliamentary cycle, ready to launch the most ambitious, radical campaign for real change that this country has ever seen.

Here’s a little more on the news that the Tory party has welcomed back 10 rebel MPs. The prime minister was said to have told them he always wanted to find a way for them to rejoin the party and the 10 MPs accepted his offer to be readmitted. A party spokesman said:

They have had the whip offered back to them, they have accepted the whip: they are Conservative Members of Parliament with the Tory whip.

He said the decision was not a comment on those who have not had the whip restored. The former Tory chancellors, Philip Hammond and Ken Clarke, along with former justice secretary, David Gauke, are among those not to have been welcomed back.

Their number also includes Sir Oliver Letwin, Justine Greening and Dominic Grieve, as well as Rory Stewart, Guto Bebb, Anne Milton and Antoinette Sandbach. Each of them remains an independent MP, while Sam Gyimah joined the Lib Dems.

The Tory MP Andrew Percy has called for a “more civil campaign” during the next general election. The Brigg and Goole MP said:

The 2017 election was an appalling campaign for many of us to go through and the abuse and threats and damage to property, damage to constituents’ property perpetrated, in some cases, by people in the name of the leader of the opposition.

So I hope the campaign next time in December is a more civil campaign on all sides, because this is not a matter that one side owns particularly.

There is a report around that the government has agreed to drop 12 December as the date and go for 9 December:

But the Tory backbencher, Steve Baker, has just told MPs:

I have just popped out to ask ... an authoritative source whether we’ve given way on the date and I understand the government’s not given way on the date. But who knows what discussions are going on behind the scenes?

We’re now getting some reaction to the news that the Tories have restored the whip to those 10 rebel MPs. The prime minister’s brother Jo Johnson, who is not seeking reelection, has welcomed it:

As have Damian Green, who was de facto deputy prime minister under Theresa May, and the former education secretary, Nicky Morgan:

The backbench MP, Ben Howlett, is somewhat less appeased:

As is now being pointed out by some correspondents in Westminster, it’s not entirely clear at this point why the whip has been restored to some of the 21 MPs and not others:

My colleague, Rajeev Syal, has this interesting line from a Labour source on trigger ballots:

And there are now multiple reports in Westminster that Boris Johnson is offering to return the whip to some of the 21 MPs from whom it was withdrawn:

From LBC’s Theo Usherwood

Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister, is responding to Cat Smith.

He says that the government needs time to pass a budget for the devolved administration in Northern Ireland before parliament can be prorogued. If that legislation does not get passed, public sector workers would end up not being paid, he says.

And he says he does not accept the argument about students not being able to vote if the poll is on 12 December. He says most of the big universities will not broken up for the Christmas holidays by then. And he says students always have the option of voting by post.

Cat Smith, the shadow deputy leader of the Commons, opens the debate, moving amendment 2, the one that would change the date of the election from Thursday 12 December to Monday 9 December. She says Labour wants as many people as possible to participate in the election.

Labour fears that students would be less likely to vote on 12 December, because some of them would have gone home at the end of term.

MPs have now moved on to the bill’s committee stage. Lindsay Hoyle, the deputy speaker who is chairing this stage of the proceedings, has just read out the amendments selected. They are the same as those on the provisional list issued earlier. (See 5.19pm.)

The Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden is now winding up for the government.

He says an election is necessary because parliament has stopped the government implementing Brexit. It voted for the Benn act, which forced the government to request a Brexit delay.

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

Phillips says the current electoral laws are not fit for purpose. She says at the last election someone was able to stand against her whose main claim to fame was that he had threatened to rape her.

A one-line bill will not sort out these problems, she says.

She says she will happily go back to her constituency for the election, so she can spend six weeks sleeping in her own bed and seeing her children.

But she thinks, when it comes to addressing the problems facing democracy, this bill will be “useless”, she says.

The Labour MP Jess Phillips is speaking in the debate now. She says the problem facing parliament is that the government is behaving as if it has got a majority when it hasn’t.

The idea of introducing a bill that might attract majority support in the Commons was never considered, she says.

She says MPs are in a “twilight zone” where the government seems to think it only has to write down a proposal and it will pass. That is not the way parliament works, she says.

She says she represents a leave seat. But she is not worried about that, even though she voted remain. She says her majority went up at the last parliament.

Phillips asks what will happen if there is another hung parliament. The election will be a Rorschach test, she says. MPs will look at the result and draw whatever conclusion from it they want.

She says MPs should be honest about the fact that they will interpret the election results to suit their own agendas.

The Brexit extension until 31 January has now been officially confirmed, my colleague Jennifer Rankin reports.

These are from ITV’s Robert Peston.

Anne Main, a Conservative Brexiter, is currently speaking in the debate at the moment. She has been going on for a while, arguing that the public want to have the Brexit situation resolved.

You will have noticed that I haven’t been giving the speeches minute-by-minute. But you are not missing anything. The whole debate for far has been rambling and rather dull.

From ITV’s Joe Pike

Sam Gyimah, the former Conservative minister who defected to the Liberal Democrats, has used an interview in the Evening Standard to say he will stand for his new party as a candidate in Kensington. It used to be a seat with a decent Tory majority (although not as safe as it was when it was part of the Kensington and Chelsea constituency), but at the 2017 general election Labour’s Emma Dent Coad pulled off a surprise victory, winning with a majority of 20.

The Lib Dems came a poor third in the seat in 2017. Asked why he thought he had a chance, Gyimah told the Standard:

You have the Conservative party pursuing a reckless hard Brexit, which has turned its back on business and is out of touch with modern Britain. Then you have a Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn who is unfit to be the prime minister and stands for an assault on property rights and people’s pensions. What we bring are sensible pragmatic policies and getting things done. Throughout Brexit I’ve shown that I stand for the values that diverse, forward-looking people in Kensington share.

Back in the debate Labour’s Pat McFadden is speaking now. He says if something was a bad idea yesterday, it is still a bad idea today.

If something was a bad idea yesterday, it might just be a bad idea today.

I don’t believe that the prime minister has been pushing for an election because it is impossible in any way to get his deal through, after all the proposal received its second reading last week.

This is being done because the prime minister wants to avoid proper scrutiny of his proposals before he calls an election, and he has been desperate since the day he took office to run this election.

Boris Johnson has been desperate for an election, he says. And he says there are two reasons why it is a bad idea.

An election does not take a no-deal Brexit off the table, he says.

And he says Johnson’s Brexit deal is flawed. It would involve two Brexits: one for Northern Ireland, and one for the rest of the UK.

These are from ConservativeHome’s Mark Wallace.

Labour’s Kevan Jones says he will not be voting for an early election. Here is an extract from the statement he has written explaining his position.

Now that a deal has moved past second reading, and time has been afforded to discuss it, the government is now calling a general election, an entirely unnecessary exercise, instead of allowing scrutiny of its own bill. It remains my belief today that this impasse must be overcome by deliberation and cooperation in parliament.

As such, I will not vote for an early general election today.

And the Labour MP Anna Turley says she won’t vote for an early election either.

From ITV’s Carl Dinnen

The Tory MP Bob Seely is speaking now. He criticises Labour for obstructing Brexit, saying Jeremy Corbyn is someone who can neither oppose nor lead. But Labour’s Kevan Jones says Labour offered to sit down with the government to negotiate a new programme motion, to allow the withdrawal agreement bill to go ahead, but with MPs getting sufficient time to debate it.

Seely does not accept the point. But Jones repeatedly says Labour made this offer. Jones says it was Boris Johnson who decided not to press ahead with the withdrawal agreement bill, not Labour.

The Labour MP Paul Farrelly told the Commons he would not vote for an early election. Intervening earlier in the debate, Farrelly said:

[I’d] encourage as many of my colleagues as possible to defy the threats and blandishments to do so because the reality is that the uncertainty of an outcome of a general election certainly does not take no-deal off the table.

Swinson says she would always vote to give 16- and 17-year-olds the vote.

Anyone sceptical about this should look at what happens in Scotland. She says in Scotland you see sixth-formers leaving school in the afternoon and going to the polling station. It is “a sight to see”, she says.

Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader, is speaking now.

She says Boris Johnson “had a cheek” talking about the whole UK in his opening speech. Johnson has not been acting in the interests of the whole of the UK. He has let Northern Ireland down. He said no Conservative PM would accept a border in the Irish Sea. But that is exactly what he has done, she says.

I’ve beefed up some of the earlier posts from the opening of the debate with direct quotes from speeches, including from Boris Johnson’s. (See 2.41pm.) To get the updates to show, you may need to refresh the page.

Blackford is still speaking. He says the government should extend the franchise to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote, and EU nationals to vote in general elections.

He says EU nationals are on the electoral register already.

At the end of his speech Blackford receives applause from SNP MPs.

The full text of the bill is now here (pdf), on the UK parliament website.

And the explanatory notes are here (pdf).

Amendments to the bill would normally be on this page too, but they are not, because the bill was only published today and the amendments are only going in now.

The Labour MP Stephen Doughty says he has tabled an amendment to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote.

Reminder: just because an amendment has been tabled, that does not mean it will be put to a vote.

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, is speaking now.

He says the SNP has been accused of trying to obstruct Brexit. “Guilty as charged,” he says.

Corbyn is wrapping up now. He says Labour is ready for this election. He wants to give people hope. He will go out there and give that message, whenever the election takes place.

Whatever date the house decides the election will be, I’m ready for it, we’re ready for it.

Because we want to be able to say to the people of this country there is an alternative to austerity. There is an alternative to inequality. There is an alternative to sweetheart trade deals with Donald Trump.

There is an alternative of a government that invests in all parts of the country, a government that’s determined to end injustice in our society.

And a government that is determined to give our young people a sense of hope in their society rather than the prospects of indebtedness and insecure employment in the future, which is sadly all the Conservative government and their coalition with the Lib Dems ever brought.

I’m very ready to go out there and give that message in any election, whenever it comes.

If Sky’s Kate McCann is right, Labour backing for votes from the age 16 and votes for EU nationals (see 2.46pm) will not make any difference because the amendments will not be called.

Corbyn says Labour will be supporting votes for people aged 16 and 17, and also supporting the right of EU nationals to vote in the general election. He says, if EU nationals have made their future in this country, they should have the right to vote here too.

In response to an intervention from a Scottish MP, Corbyn says the idea of making election day a public holiday, so as to increase turnout, is a good one.

He also says he favours extending the franchise to give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote.

Jeremy Corbyn is responding to Johnson. He says he is looking forward to campaigning all over the country. And he says he will campaign against Johnson in Johnson’s constituency, Uxbridge and South Ruislip - if Johnson is still the candidate there.

Corbyn is referring to rumours that Johnson might switch to a safer seat.

From the official Labour whips Twitter account

Labour’s Stella Creasy is now moving her amendment. (See 11.20am.) She says the government has tried to rig the debate. That is because the programme motion takes away the right of the chair to select any amendment for debate. She says that is “not cricket”.

If this programme motion is allowed to stand, it would set a precedent for future debates, she says.

She says if the bill is to pass, it should do so via fair play.

The SNP’s Pete Wishart says, if Labour is going to oppose this programme motion, this bill might not progress.

He says Boris Johnson has failed to deliver his key promise to deliver Brexit by 31 October. He says the “Kippers” (Ukip supporters), Faragists and rightwing Tories must feel like mugs.

He says a December election is not ideal. He says in parts of his constituency in December it gets dark at 3.30pm. But he says this is a risk worth taking for the sake of having an early election.

Valerie Vaz, the shadow leader of the Commons, is now speaking. She criticises the way the government has introduced this bill, saying MPs have had very little time to implement it.

She says the programme motion is “unacceptable” and deliberately designed to frustrate the Commons.

Rees-Mogg says the government wants this bill to get royal assent by 5 November, so that the house can rise on 6 November. He says parliament also has to pass a budget for the Northern Ireland assembly before then.

He says this is a short bill, and that the business motion is routine. He says Stella Creasy’s amendment in itself would not wreck the bill, but it would be a “gateway to amendments that could seek to obstruct the bill”, he says.

Newnight’s Nicholas Watt says it is not yet certain that the December election will go ahead. He explains:

We will find out shortly, because the debate on the programme motion is about to start.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, that drug pricing would not be included in any trade deal with the US after Brexit. Responding to a reference to the Channel 4 Dispatches investigation saying that drug pricing has been discussed in talks between UK and US officials, Hancock said:

The NHS is off the table in trade talks and pharmaceutical pricing is off the table and transparency over pharmaceutical pricing would not benefit this country at all because we get the best deals in the world because we can keep them confidential.

Here is the Evening Standard’s take on Labour’s decision to back an early election. The Standard, of course, is edited by the former Tory chancellor George Osborne.

These are from the Labour MP Barry Sheerman.

I’ve asked Labour if it can confirm or deny what Sheerman is saying about resignations, but have not had a reply yet.

The Financial Times is running its own poll tracker (a chart that incorporates the results of all published polls). It has the Conservatives 11 points ahead of Labour.

Most general elections get described as the most important the country has faced for a generation or so. Here is the academic Matthew Goodwin making a case for why this might be true this time around.

There is one urgent question today.

The Labour decision to back an early election means Boris Johnson is going to get his way, and the bill calling for a poll in December is going to pass. Labour is still planning to push various amendments, but it has agreed to an early election in principle and none of these amendments are being described as red lines.

But MPs will still have to debate the bill. A complicated business motion (pages 6 to 9 on the order paper) has been tabled, saying the whole process should take six hours, with the second-reading vote coming four hours after the start of proceedings.

Unusually, the business motion limits the ability of MPs to amend the bill by saying that that there should be a limit on the number of votes allowed by the Speaker and that amendments moved by ministers should take priority.

The Labour MP Stella Creasy has tabled her own amendment to the business motion that would open up the process and allow amendments to be voted on as usual.

This means the opening of the proceedings will be dominated by a row about process, because the business motion has to be agreed before the second-reading debate can start.

These are from Sky’s Lewis Goodall.

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

This is from the BBC’s Iain Watson.

This does not necessarily mean Labour will back the bill as it currently stands, because yesterday Jeremy Corbyn signalled that, although he might back an election in December, he had a problem with the proposed date, Thursday 12.

From the New Statesman’s Patrick Maguire

From the BBC’s Adam Fleming

More from the People’s Vote campaign, where the Twitter feed seems to be under the control of the anti-Rudd faction. (See 10.16am.)

Around 40 members of staff at the People’s Vote campaign have written to Roland Rudd, who effectively runs it, complaining about his decision to dismiss two of its most senior executives, James McGrory and Tom Baldwin. In the letter, which was sent last night, they said:

It is utterly absurd that at this critical time for our country, you have started an argument about how our campaign is run.

We do not want a public argument, we simply want to get back to work, delivering the people’s vote that our country so desperately needs.

Your actions have meant that we have been unable to do that, at this critical juncture for the campaign and the country.

As the staff of the People’s Vote campaign, we demand you allow us to continue with our work, under the leadership of James and Tom.

My colleagues Rajeev Syal and Rowena Mason have a good article explaining the background to the row here.

The gender pay gap for full-time workers in the UK has increased slightly to 8.9%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. As the Press Association reports, the new figure compares with 8.6% last year, which was the lowest since records began in 1997, when it stood at 17.4%. The difference in pay of all male and female workers, including those in part-time jobs, has fallen from 17.8% in 2018 to 17.3% in 2019, and continues to fall, the report said. For people under 40 years of age, the pay gap for full-time employees is now “close to zero”, the ONS said.

The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, has said his party’s votes “should not be taken for granted” by the prime minister today, refusing to confirm whether he would support Johnson’s latest attempt to call a December election, but insisting that his party still wanted one “as soon as possible”.

Of course, Blackford can’t take his own MPs for granted either: yesterday the long-serving Western Isles MP, Angus Brendan MacNeil, broke ranks to criticise SNP support for a winter election.

Asked on BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme about his own comments last week that going to the polls in December was “barking mad”, especially in a northern constituency like his, Blackford insisted that circumstances had now changed because of the EU’s extension. He said:

I have no particular relish to have an election over the course of the next weeks but we’re going to have to accept our responsibility. People will still come out.

Asked whether he accepted that a potential outcome of a general election could be a Tory majority and a no-deal Brexit, Blackford said it was “up to the Labour party and others in England and Wales to do their job in defeating the Conservatives. We will do that in Scotland. But the simple fact remains that we cannot sit back and allow this prime minister to take us out of Europe.”

He added that in Scotland “we have the insurance policy of having a referendum on independence”, which the SNP intends to make a key election issue.

But the party must also be aware of echoes of 1979, when the SNP helped to bring down the minority Labour government, ushering in two decades of Tory rule, a memory that still smarts for some.