A SENIOR member of the SNP has said there is “growing despair” among party members over the leadership’s failure to lay the groundwork for a new independence campaign.

Former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who is now the MP for East Lothian, said work on a new prospectus for Indyref2 was “moribund”.

Instead of updating economic plans in light of the Covid pandemic, or addressing issues over currency, pensions, and post-Brexit borders, there was a “self-satisfied parroting of opinion poll results”.

He said: “That many see as not just negligent but criminal.”

Nicola Sturgeon this week announced she would publish a draft Referendum Bill before next year’s Holyrood election setting out her timetable and question for Indyref2.

However it is essentially a discussion document which will not become law before the election, although it could be a template for legislation in the 2021-2026 parliament.

The SNP last set out an economic blueprint for independence in May 2018 in its Scottish Growth Commission, but its numbers and priorities have been overtaken by coronavirus.

In a scathing article for the new issue of the Scottish Left Review, Mr MacAskill also criticises the SNP leadership for indulging in “political chicanery” instead of gearing up for Indyref2.

He said: “Underpinning all the discontent has been a growing despair at the failure of SNP HQ to prepare for Indyref2. 

“Even flagrant sins would be pardoned by some if progress was being made toward the Holy Grail. But instead, it’s been moribundity that’s prevailed [with] a leadership doing little if anything to progress it.

“As the SNP vote has increased and support for independence likewise, the case for it hasn’t been getting built in equal proportions. 

“Rather than stitching up selection ballots, members were rightly expecting preparations were begun to achieve and win Indyref2. 

“Polls are favourable and the British state is in turmoil under an incompetent administration. But no one underestimates the scale of the challenge that remains or the onslaught that will be launched in the future. 

“That’s why there’s underlying anger and frustration.

Instead, we been presented with a self-satisfied parroting of opinion poll results rather than laying the groundwork for the real test to come. 

“The Growth Commission was belated in its delivery and is now outdated in its content. And neither the issues that were pivotal in Indyref1 in 2014 such as currency and pensions nor the new ones post-Brexit of relations with the EU and borders have been addressed. 

“That many see as not just negligent but criminal.”

Mr MackAsill accused SNP HQ, which is run by Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, SNP chief executive Peter Murrell of “political inertia” while attacking perceived troublemakers such as the “hatchet job” on MP Joanna Cherry QC that stopped her standing for Holyrood.

He said the SNP’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) had been “brought into contempt” by the “flagrant Tamany Hall-style” manoeuvring of some of its members.

He claimed that while some people were trying to block candidates, they were “shamefully” preparing their own media launches for Holyrood at the same time. 

He also warned the leadership’s resistance to internal debate risked weakening the wider Yes movement and “individuals lost to the cause”.

He said: “The SNP cannot be the political equivalent of some strict Presbyterian sect, simply chorusing the chants of the precentor. 

“The scale of the party now, let alone the nationalist movement, makes that a non-starter - never mind the fact that its entirely inappropriate in a membership-based body, as well as a democracy. 

“Moreover, there are issues to discuss, and not just policy required, to win the next referendum. Recent actions or inactions can neither be ignored nor brushed aside, otherwise the movement will be weakened, and individuals lost to the cause. 

“Openness is required and debate accordingly is both necessary and healthy.”

On the Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish Government’s botched misconduct inquiry into Alex Salmond, he said: “It’s hard to see how there won’t be casualties. The suggestion, or solace, perhaps sought by some, that this was a British civil service conspiracy was always fanciful. “The fingerprints of senior party officials are all over this, and truth will out.”

In the same Scottish Left Review, former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars warned the Yes movement not to believe the polls showing 55 per cent support for independence.

Although they had “seriously damaged” Unionist morale, they did not “reflect reality in the surreal world that Covid-19 has created”, he said.

Elsewhere in the SLR, former SNP George Kerevan urges the SNP’s grassroots to “reassert their right to make party policy” that represents the working class.

He says the party is increasing willing to “accommodate capital” by bringing business into the heart of government decision-making and failing to challenge vested interests.

This has led to “questionable compromises” and “cosy relations” with big firms, he said.

An SNP source said: "Sir John Curtice is more positive about recent polling than Kenny."