Tommy Sheppard (pictured right) admits indyref2 won't happen this decade (Image: Getty)
An SNP heavyweight has admitted in a startling confession that a Scottish independence referendum is unlikely to happen this decade.
Former MP Tommy Sheppard also warned the Yes movement that the British Government would likely criminalise those who tried to break up the UK without their permission.
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The Scottish Nationalists are licking their wounds after a punishing General Election campaign which saw the party lose 38 MPs and witness the dream of independence dying before their eyes.
With only nine MPs in Westminster, the influence and power of being the third biggest party in the UK has gone up in smoke.
Ahead of the SNP conference later this week, Mr Sheppard appeared downbeat over a timeline for breaking up the UK, according to the Scottish Daily Express.
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He attacked the Yes movement for letting pro-independence MPs get booted out of parliament and highlighted this meant a lot of work had to be done to recover their position.
Mr Sheppard, detailing his argument in pro-independence newspaper The National, said: "There is a way to achieve self-government by popular consent even if the UK Government is hostile to the objective.
"It means we agree that our central objective is to assert the Claim of Right and that therefore our principal demand is to amend the 1998 Act to remove the reservation of the constitution to the UK Parliament.
"Amongst other things, this is what we should present to the electorate in 2026. If they give us a mandate, we should then build a two-year civic campaign to support the Scottish government when it presses that case on the UK.
"This is the first stage in a timeline that with a fair wind would take us to a referendum in the early 30s. And to be clear, if a majority are elected in 2026 denying the Claim of Right, it will take even longer. No quick fixes. No (sic) just one more heave. Serious, determined, patient work."
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Tommy Sheppard says Scots won't be able to vote on independence until the early 2030s (Image: Getty)
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He warned against Nationalist plans to make a unilateral declaration of independence and refuse to recognise the United Kingdom.
Mr Sheppard wrote that he understood why people argue for this and admitted to having an "emotional attraction" to it himself. But he argued it won’t work, with the first problem being that the right to self-determination is held by the people and not the party or the government.
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He said the people are "very much not on board", adding it was not what they voted for in 2021 and "definitely not" in 2024.
Mr Sheppard continued: "But even if we the SNP were to win a majority to declare independence in 2026, the immediate question is us and whose army. Let us not pretend that the agencies of the British state will acquiesce in our enthusiasm. They will not.
"And they will use the full might of that state to block, and criminalise, our attempts to change it, including the suspension of Holyrood and the imposition of direct rule."