The Scottish Government would be “empowered to begin immediate negotiations” on ending the Union if the SNP wins the most general election seats, Humza Yousaf has said. 

Despite the scenario encompassing the SNP having less than half of Scotland's MPs, the First Minister said he would publish detailed terms for Scottish independence if it happened. 

The Scottish Government would also consult on a draft constitution to be “the founding document of an independent Scotland” and prepare the ground for rejoining the EU.

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The proposals, which will go before the SNP’s annual conference in Aberdeen next month, are a watering down of Mr Yousaf's insistence in June that winning a majority of Scotland's seats constituted a mandate.

With boundary changes reducing the number of Scottish MPs from 59 to 57, a majority would be 29.

But the motion only refers to "the most" seats, meaning a plurality that could be less than 29, proved the SNP had more MPs than Labour.

It follows the SNP's fall in the polls that makes a majority less likely.

In the resolution to the October conference, Mr Yousaf and SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn jointly set out their “Independence strategy”.

They ask delegates to back using the next general election “as an opportunity to advance the cause of independence, and to demonstrate how the powers of independence would enable us to take action on Scotland’s priorities”.

 They ask the conference to agree that “if the SNP subsequently wins the most seats at the General Election in Scotland, the Scottish Government is empowered to begin immediate negotiations with the UK Government to give democratic effect to Scotland becoming an independent country”.

In preparation for independence, the Scottish Government would then:

• Publish  detailed terms for discussions with the UK Government 

• Conduct a nationwide consultation on a draft interim constitution

• Prepare the ground for Scotland to become an independent member state of the EU by establishing an envoy position in Brussels.

However there is no explanation of why the UK Government - potentially under Labour's Keir Starmer, who has ruled out any deal with the SNP - would agree.

The SNP has won a majority of Westminster seats at the last three general elections and its demands for Indyref2 were rebuffed.

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The polls also suggest the SNP, which won 48 seats in 2019 but now has 44 after defections and expulsions, is likely to lose seats, undermining its demands.

Mr Salmond said: “No one seriously believes that proposing a majority of seats as an independence mandate is at all credible. Given that Westminster have been allowed over repeated elections to dismiss a majority of SNP seats as a mandate for a mere referendum, why on earth would they concede it as a mandate for negotiating independence itself?”

Tory MSP Donald Cameron said: "Humza Yousaf has made it crystal clear.

"He's hellbent on pushing forward an even more extreme version of Nicola Sturgeon's deeply unpopular de facto referendum plan.

"People vote on a whole host of issues at general elections, rather than just on what Humza Yousaf wants them to."

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton added: "It seems like Humza Yousaf and Stephen Flynn have lost the plot.

"They had a gold standard referendum and lost it but now they want to invent a crackpot alternative that allows them to lose a bunch of seats but still break up the UK with a fraction of the vote."

Alba party leader Alex Mr Salmond said: “Given that Westminster have been allowed over repeated elections to dismiss a majority of SNP seats as a mandate for a mere referendum, why on earth would they concede it as a mandate for negotiating independence itself?”

Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, said: "Whatever guise it takes, the de facto plan is unwanted and unworkable.

"It was ridiculed far and wide when his predecessor came up with it, and this version from Humza Yousaf is just as much of a nonsense."