Keith Brown: Election is choice between Westminster control and independence

The SNP’s deputy leader will tell conference delegates on Monday that the next general election will be a “straight choice” between Westminster control and independence.

Keith Brown will address delegates in Aberdeen on Monday afternoon and is expected to “call out” Labour and the Tories for “decades of mismanagement” and “decisions taken without any consideration of Scotland”.

The annual conference began on Sunday and heard from party leader and First Minister Humza Yousaf, who led the debate on the party’s new independence strategy.

But he told his party members that a “unity of purpose” could be their “greatest strength”.

He spoke as SNP members at conference backed his motion calling for the Scottish Government to begin immediate negotiations with Westminster “to give democratic effect to Scotland becoming an independent country” if the party wins a majority of seats north of the border at the next general election.

This could either be achieved via the UK Government entering into talks on independence, backing the holding of another referendum, or transferring the powers for Holyrood to stage such a vote, the party clarified.

Delegates also heard from the party’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, who told members: “The Westminster parties are asking the Scottish people to trust them to fix the unfixable – broken Brexit Britain.

“We are asking something different, and we are offering something deeply different.

“We are asking the Scottish people to put trust in themselves – to take powers and our future into our own hands.

“We are offering the opportunity to build a new, independent Scotland.”

Keith Brown, who has been deputy leader of the SNP since 2018, is expected to say: “The next election in Scotland will be a clear choice between Westminster control and independence.

“Scotland can escape the chaos of Westminster mismanagement – from the hard-right economic destruction of a Tory budget to the lurch to the right from Labour on everything from workers’ rights to immigration.

“Now, with the party united behind the independence strategy, our job is to take the substance of the independence debate to the people – to build support and to deliver independence.”