THE SNP should threaten to stage a second independence referendum after 2016 unless devo max powers are moved to Holyrood, former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars has said.
In a speech to party members in Edinburgh, he dismissed the Smith Commission, which is considering further powers for Holyrood, as a "trap".
He said the SNP should fight to win a majority of Scotland's 59 Westminster seats in next May's general election before securing another majority at Holyrood in 2016 to press for a re-run of September's independence vote.
He added that the SNP and other pro-independence parties should strike a deal to field Yes candidates next May.
Sillars said the Nationalists should be able to "extract" devo max - defined as control over all policy areas apart from defence, foreign affairs and the currency - from the UK Government if they held 30 Scottish Westminster seats.
He said the election was "round one" in a new battle for independence and urged people to "write the epitaph of the Labour Party".
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