A SENIOR SNP councillor has said it is “astonishing” that party members will not debate the party’s Growth Commission on independence at their autumn conference.
Chris McEleny was reacting after the provisional agenda for the October meeting in Glasgow was issued without any motions about the Commission or its currency plan.
Mr McEleny, leader of the SNP group in Inverclyde and an unsuccessful candidate to be SNP deputy earlier this year, said he was aware of at least two motions which had been submitted on the subject only to be rejected by the conference organising committee.
The Scottish LibDems accused the SNP of ducking debate on the controversial report.
Designed to update the economic case for independence, the Growth Commission was headed by former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson, now a corporate lobbyist.
His 354-page report recommended keeping the pound in an informal currency union, and keeping down public spending for a decade to half the Scottish deficit.
The plan has been criticised by many on the left of the Yes movement as unambitious, with the Institute of Fiscal Studies saying it would essentially continue Tory austerity.
When the SNP published the report in May, the party said SNP members would have a chance to debate its contents at three assemblies prior to the October conference.
However it is missing from the long list of 32 potential motions for debate in the agenda.
Although the SNP told members last month that feedback from the summer assemblies would be considered at an SNP National Council in December or 2019 spring conference, Cllr McEleny criticised the lack of any debate at all on the Growth Commission in October.
He tweeted: “I find it absolutely astonishing that with 32 motions making a ‘long list’ for SNP conference, not a single one on the growth commission or currency made the cut. How can we not be debating the biggest contribution to the independence case since 2014?”
Scottish LibDem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “The SNP are hopelessly split between those who embrace the Growth Commission's austerity economics and those who miss the wishful thinking of Alex Salmond's White Paper. No wonder the leadership don’t want a debate on the growth commission on their conference agenda.”
An SNP spokesman said the forthcoming National Assembles would focus on the Growth Commission, adding: “The conclusions will form the basis of policy resolutions to be presented to National Council in December or our Spring Conference in 2019.”
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