THE formal campaign group for independence has become little more than an SNP front, according to one of its former executives.
Yes Scotland no longer fully reflects the wider movement of those seeking independence, Green party member Stan Blackley said.
"The wider Yes campaign has become a movement of the people, become cross-party and non-party," he wrote in the Sunday Herald newspaper.
He added: "It has moved away from political identities to become something more diverse and more convincing than the SNP, and in doing so has left Yes Scotland behind.
"In many ways, the Yes Scotland organisation is now redundant.
"In my opinion, this is just as well, as that organisation has become little more than an SNP front in recent months."
Mr Blackley was deputy director of communities at the group for 16 months until January this year.
His comments were seized upon by those who claim non-SNP members of Yes Scotland have been deceived.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Anas Sarwar said: "They are simply there to add a veneer of variety to Salmond's campaign.
"But Scots will see through their attempt to pretend to be something they aren't."
Mr Blackley said at Yes Scotland he saw "more roaring tantrums, faux resignations, bad-tempered walk-outs, pointless meetings, chaotic activities and last-minute panics than in the rest of my 25 working years".
A Yes Scotland spokesman expressed gratitude for Mr Blackley's work and said: "Stan Blackley was dismissed by Yes Scotland in January as part of a change of initiative in the grassroots area of the campaign .
"The momentum is now clearly with the Yes movement."
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