Scottish independence campaign seeks new lease of life

Around 2,000 Scottish independence campaigners marched in Glasgow in a show of support for the devolved UK country's flagging movement for self-rule ahead of a general election later this year.

A series of setbacks, including a fraud scandal involving Scotland's former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, have left the independence movement at arguably its lowest ebb in recent memory.

The march comes after Sturgeon's husband, Peter Murrell, was charged on Thursday for the embezzlement of $742,139 in donations meant for independence campaigning.

Murrell, the 59-year-old former chief executive of the ruling pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), was charged more than a year after he was first arrested.

Sturgeon, who resigned as the devolved UK administration's first minister and SNP leader in February 2023, was arrested in June last year, but released without charge.

On Friday, she described her husband's situation as "incredibly difficult," with current First Minister Humza Yousaf calling it a "really serious matter indeed".

'A mandate for independence'

Sturgeon had established herself as one of the figureheads of the independence movement alongside then-Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond ahead of an independence referendum in 2014.

Scotland voted against independence, with 55 percent of electors choosing "No", but Sturgeon, 53, put the matter back on the table in 2016 after the UK voted to leave the European Union.

Current SNP leader Yousaf has vowed to continue the push for independence at the UK general election, which is expected to be held in October or November.

He says the SNP will claim "a mandate for independence negotiations" with the British government if it wins at least 29 of the 57 seats up for grabs in Scotland.

The party currently has 43 MPs but is expected to lose several to a resurgent Labour Party, which is tipped to form the next government.

The SNP has a seven-point lead over Labour in voting intentions, according to the polling agency Ipsos, but that is down from 12 points a year ago.

Yousaf has also vowed to rejoin the EU as fast as possible, but that won't happen anytime soon with independence not currently on the horizon.