Gandhi’s Salt March forced Westminster’s hand and the SNP should emulate him, Alex Neil suggested

A leading SNP politician has invoked Gandhi’s campaign for Indian independence and suggested a programme of civil disobedience is needed to force the UK government into permitting Holyrood to call a second referendum.

Alex Neil, the former Scottish health secretary, also claimed that a “wildcat” independence referendum organised by the Scottish government would not be invalidated by a unionist boycott.

The prime minister ruled out allowing a second referendum in a letter to Nicola Sturgeon last week, while Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, said that the SNP would have to wait until “a generation or a lifetime has passed” for a second ballot.

Mr Neil, 68, argued that Holyrood already had the power to hold a decisive consultative referendum, dismissing comparisons with Spain, where an