FORMER SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars has said he “couldn’t care less” if the party expels him for campaigning for its left-wing rival RISE in May’s election.
Launching RISE’s Glasgow campaign, Sillars said it was a “privilege” to endorse the pro-independence, anti-austerity alliance and he had no fear of expulsion.
His speech threw down the gauntlet to SNP HQ, where officials have already discussed his backing of RISE on the list vote, in defiance of the party’s ‘Both Votes SNP’ message.
It is against SNP rules to campaign for a rival party in an election.
In February, one SNP MSP said Sillars had effectively “ripped up his membership card” by backing RISE, which is trying to get socialist MSPs into Holyrood via the regional lists.
However appearing with Cat Boyd and two other RISE candidates in Govan on Wednesday, Sillars said he thought the SNP wouldn’t dare throw him out in case of bad publicity.
He said: “I don’t think I’m actually in any danger of being expelled and therefore joining the pantheon of Alex Salmond, Margo MacDonald, Kenny MacAskill. They’ve all been expelled but I never have been.”
Referring to the unnamed MSP who criticised him, he said “more sane voices” in the party had told the person not to be stupid as “you’d be making a huge public issue out of an old age pensioner.
"So I don’t think I’m any danger of being expelled, at least this side of the election. And anyway, at 78, I couldn’t care less.”
Sillars lavished praise on Boyd, the top RISE candidate in Glasgow, saying she and the SNP’s Mhairi Black had struck him as “political gold” when he saw them in the referendum.
He said: “One of the reasons I’m involved in the campaign for the second vote for RISE is because I see people like Cat as the successor generation to the socialists I come from.
“I really do hope that we have RISE MSPs, because we need an unambiguous socialist voice in the Holyrood parliament. We need people who can stand up and tell the truth on behalf of working class people and that’s people like Cat Boyd.
“I regard it, at the end of my political life, as a privilege to be asked to come to speak on behalf of RISE and urge people to use their second vote on behalf of RISE.”
Sillars also took a swipe at the SNP, saying it now craved “respectability” not radical change.
He said he would still vote for the SNP’s Jim Eadie in Edinburgh Southern, but largely because he couldn’t face voting for any other party.
He said: “I’m left with the SNP. That’s the best of a bad job. It’s not the best of a bad job when I come to RISE.
"This is something that has great growth potential in the socialist movement inside Scotland. That’s why this election is so critical.
“That’s why I would urge everyone: chap as many doors as you can before polling day to get the RISE message across. If we get one person in, it’ll be the start of a great breakthrough.”
Sillars also campaigned for RISE Lothian candidate Colin Fox in Edinburgh the following night.
An SNP spokeswoman said: “Jim Sillars is right in recognising the significance of the upcoming Scottish Parliament election - the most important since devolution.
“Only by casting both votes for the SNP can people be sure to re-elect a government that will use our new powers to create a fairer, more equal Scotland."
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