ONE of the most powerful pro-independence websites has launched a furious attack on Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP in an article titled “the betrayer”.

Wings Over Scotland accused the party of a “colossal, criminal dereliction of duty”, and of following a strategy that had “failed utterly”.

The website, run by Stuart Campbell, also suggested it will “shut up shop permanently” if Ms Sturgeon is still in charge after April.

In a furious article, he said it had been “downhill all the way” under the current leadership.

It came after Ms Sturgeon told supporters there were no “short cuts or clever wheezes” to independence, and urged them not to give in to “impatience and frustration”.

Setting out her next steps on independence at an event in Edinburgh, the First Minister said she did not rule out seeking a consultative referendum in defiance of UK Government opposition, but added: "My judgement at this stage is that we should use our energies differently.”

However, Mr Campbell said not a single step had been taken to establish a legal footing for one to be held.

Referring to the SNP, he wrote: “The party has been the custodian of the fight for independence for over 80 years, but through cynical careerism, stupendous incompetence or both, the current leadership has not merely dropped the ball, but punctured it with a garden fork, set it on fire and kicked it onto next door’s roof.”

He said it “remains the view of Wings Over Scotland that only a complete change of the aforementioned leadership (and its toxically insular and incestuous modus operandi) offers any hope of success in the foreseeable future”.

Mr Campbell said he planned to take a two-month break, and suggested he might quit if Ms Sturgeon is still in charge in a few months.

He wrote: “There may be posts now and then if something particularly significant happens, there’ll still be some social media chat and we’ll probably keep the cartoonist in cat biscuits, but otherwise it’s time to do something else for a bit and see where we are in April.

“If the answer to that is ‘still being led by Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell [Ms Sturgeon’s husband and the SNP’s chief executive]’, then the reality is that the war is probably lost and it’ll be time to shut up shop permanently."