Ian Blackford has said that if Scotland continues to be ignored in Westminster, support for Scottish independence will grow.
Writing in The Times, he says that the only consistent aspect of the Brexit process is that Scotland's voice has been 'utterly ignored' by the UK government.
It comes after the First Minister laid out plans to hold a second Scottish independence referendum before the end of the parliamentary term in May 2021.
Read more: Nicola Sturgeon planning Indyref2 before 2021 ballot
Mr Blackford wrote: "The much-vaunted “partnership of equals” that was promised by the No campaign in the run-up to the first independence referendum in 2014 has been exposed for the utterly vacuous claim it always was.
"Instead, Scotland votes and voice have been scandalously ignored and sidelined in the whole Brexit process."
The 'partnership of equals' was a term also used by SNP's EU spokesperson on the day of Nicola Sturgeon's announcement.
He told Sky News that Scotland does not sit on par within the UK, but would have the chance in the EU.
Read more: SNP say Scotland does not 'sit in a partnership of equals' within UK
Mr Blackford continued: "What we have witnessed, regardless of people’s views on either Brexit or independence, is a Westminster system that clearly now no longer works in Scotland’s interests, if indeed it ever did.
"The status quo, as the first minister said, is clearly broken."
The SNP Westminster leader claimed that while Scotland's voice is ignored in the UK, it will mean an inevitable growth in support for the Scottish independence movement.
He wrote: "The Westminster system has clearly failed Scotland — and Brexit now means that change is unavoidable.
"Those who oppose our vision for Scotland need to show they understand that and respond positively.
"Otherwise, as the first minister said yesterday, the process of change will pass them by and support for independence will only continue to grow."
Read Ian Blackford's full commentary in The Times.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel