Nicola Sturgeon will make a plea for vital migration powers to be devolved to Scotland, as her newly elected party deputy, Keith Brown, called on independence supporters to “get ready” for a second referendum.



Addressing delegates at the Scottish National party’s summer conference in Aberdeen on Saturday afternoon, Sturgeon will say: “Westminster’s hostile environment to migration is not just a slogan. It is has a real impact on our public services and our economy.”

Noting that, since the Brexit vote in June 2016, there has been a significant drop in the number of EU nurses registering in the UK, the SNP leader and Scotland’s first minister will insist: “Scotland is a welcoming country – our prosperity and our public services depend on it. If Westminster cannot, or will not, act in our best interests, it is time that our own parliament was able to do so. It’s time for powers over migration to come to Scotland.”



Earlier on Friday, Keith Brown was elected SNP deputy leader, following a ballot of the party’s 118,000 plus membership. Brown, who is the Scottish government’s economy secretary, told delegates that another referendum was “undoubtedly ahead”.

“While we wait for clarity on Brexit ... the challenge is for all of us in the party and the wider Yes movement across Scotland to get ready.”



The contest to replace former MP Angus Robertson as party deputy had been dominated by questions about the timing of another independence referendum.

There have been several public skirmishes in recent months about whether Sturgeon should deploy the mandate for a new referendum that she claims from the 2016 Holyrood elections before the parliamentary term ends in 2021. Alternatively, she could delay until an unarguable economic case for independence has been built and public opinion is more favourable.

Brown won 55.2% of the vote on second preferences, compared with 48.3% for his closest rival, the activist Julie Hepburn. This lack of a convincing initial majority may point to a desire among restless party members for a stronger voice in the leadership hierarchy, as well as their support for Hepburn’s commitment to holding a referendum by 2021.

Enjoying the sunshine on the east coast, both activists and politicians were buoyed by two pieces of research released overnight before the start of the conference. A poll for the Times found the SNP continuing to marshal a substantial lead in both Westminster and Holyrood voting intentions, despite being in government for more than a decade.

The survey by YouGov gives the party a 13-point lead over the Tories and a 17-point lead over Labour at Westminster, while at Holyrood the lead is 14 over the Tories and 19 over Labour.

Meanwhile, updated analysis of social attitudes by the National Centre for Social Research found that 41% of Scots believe that the economy would improve under independence, compared with 26% in 2016.

The Times polling found no increase in support for independence since 2014. A majority of 52% oppose holding another referendum within the next five years.

The YouGov survey also found voters continuing to switch from Labour to the SNP, suggesting that the election of Corbyn ally Richard Leonard as Scottish Labour leader last November has yet to bolster the party’s fortunes.

The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, used his address to conference to accuse Labour of effectively colluding with the Tories by failing to provide a strong enough opposition to Theresa May’s plans for a hard Brexit.

Challenging Jeremy Corbyn to ditch his “ludicrous” stance on Brexit, Blackford said: “Labour must join with us and give full support to staying in the single market and the customs union to mitigate against the risks of a hard Brexit.”

The YouGov poll also revealed that Sturgeon’s personal approval ratings have slipped to -2, from an unprecedented +56 point positive rating around the time of the general election of 2015, when the SNP won 56 of 59 Scottish seats in a landslide victory.

There will be no scheduled discussion during the main conference of the report from the party’s Sustainable Growth Commission, published last week. The report intended to provide a fresh economic prospectus for independence to overcome what many see as the failings of the 2014 campaign’s arguments around currency and jobs.

The report, which attracted criticism from opponents as well as supporters on the left of the independence movement, was referenced at several fringe events.



At a debate organised by the Institute for Economic Affairs, veteran former SNP MP George Kerevan described the report as “a little too conservative for my case”, saying “if you start risking people at the other end – the poor, the unemployed, the people stuck in dead-end jobs ... then what is independence for?”