SNP MP Tommy Sheppard says Scots will only vote for independence if Yes campaign backs new currency

SCOTS will only vote for independence if the Yes campaign backs a Scottish currency and a central ‘Bank of Scotland’, Tommy Sheppard has said.

The SNP MP for Edinburgh East said indy campaigners must build a strong economic case for breaking from the Union if they were to change No voters’ minds.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has conceded a new poll is unlikely in 2017 but Mr Sheppard, speaking to delegates at the Scottish Independence Convention in Glasgow on Saturday, said 2017 should be the year Yes campaigners found answers to “big questions” on the economy raised in the 2014 referendum.

Unionists refused to back a currency union with an independent Scotland in the run-up to the 2014 vote, which, it has been claimed, convinced many undecideds to shun a Yes vote.

But Mr Sheppard, whose strong grassroots following saw him contest the depute leadership of the SNP last year, said Yes backers should make a new Scottish currency a central plank of any new campaign.

He said: “I think the time has come to say, if we want our own government, which is capable of investing in our economy and making sure we are developing and modernising our industry to be all it can be, then that government is going to have to have its own central bank behind it and we are going to have to have our own currency.

“One of the lessons of 2014 is that it is difficult to go into a campaign when one of your central policy points is dependent on the consent of your opponents.”

The SNP said monetary policy formed part of its Growth Commission work as its supporters look to a future campaign.

A spokesman for the SNP said: “The SNP has established a Growth Commission which, as well as making recommendations for measures to boost economic growth, will consider the most appropriate monetary policy arrangements to underpin a programme for sustainable growth in an independent Scotland.”

Results are due later this year on the First Minister’s draft Independence Referendum Bill consultation. Views on the draft Bill were sought following Scotland’s decisive pro-Remain vote in the Brexit referendum.