Humza Yousaf accepts no 'sustained majority' for independence

An SNP leadership candidate has accepted there is no "sustained majority" for independence, and urged his party to make the positive case for Scotland leaving the UK.

Humza Yousaf, who is currently the Scottish Government health secretary, also criticised suggestions the SNP should move more quickly to achieve independence. 

He told Representing Border "anybody that comes to this campaign and has a ruse cooked up in the oven that suggests we can get independence tomorrow, I'm afraid, is not being honest with the party membership".

Mr Yousaf said the focus should instead be on making the case to voters that Scotland would be better off outside the UK, which he accepted was a slower process. 

He argued no UK Government would be able to continue denying calls for a second independence referendum, if polls made it consistently clear that Scottish people backed having a second vote. 

The other leadership candidates are Kate Forbes, the Finance Secretary, and Ash Regan, the former community safety minister.

She has said she would call for an "independence convention to be held" on her first day as leader, and that a vote of more than 50% for pro-independence parties in either a Westminster or Holyrood election would lead to negotiations over independence beginning between the UK and Scottish Governments.