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Pete Wishart said plans by SNP leader on Inverclyde Council, Chris McEleny, and MP Angus MacNeil – dubbed Plan B – must be “put to bed” because Scotland would be left in the same “hellish” position as Catalonia. His criticism unveils divides in Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP party over which route to independence is best for Scotland.

Mr MacNeil and Mr McEleny want the manifesto for next year’s Holyrood elections to include a pledge that winning a pro-independence majority would be grounds to start negotiations with Westminster for Scotland to leave the UK.

But Mr Wishart said: “My little bit of advice to my good friends in the ‘Plan B movement’ is to at least come up with some sort of concrete proposal so we can have some idea what it is we are supposed to debate.”

Mr MacNeil and Mr McEleny argue an alternative approach is needed after first Theresa May and Prime Minister Boris Johnson turned down Section 30 requests from Ms Sturgeon for power to be transferred to Scotland for a second vote on independence to be held.

The motion which Mr MacNeil and Mr McEleny want to see debated proposes that if a fresh independence referendum is “denied” by the UK Government and if the competence to hold a consultative referendum is not established, then the SNP 2021 Holyrood manifesto “shall state that the election of a pro-independence majority of seats shall be a mandate from the people of Scotland to commence independence negotiations with the UK Government”.

But Mr Wishart warned of the “serious” consequences of holding a referendum without permission from Westminster.

Writing for his blog, he said: “‘Just doing it anyway’ means we would be doing something broadly similar to what Catalonia did when they ‘won’ their uncontested referendum – without actually winning a referendum!

“This would in effect mean we would be declaring some sort of Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI).

“The consequences of that could not be more serious.

“Almost certain to be one of the first things to happen is that we would have all of this immediately ruled illegal and be disenfranchised from the entire international community.

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“We would be left in the sort of hellish limbo currently endured by the people of Catalonia.”

Catalonia has been in turmoil ever since a controversial referendum held on October 1, 2017, in which 92 percent of voters backed the region becoming an independent state – although critics were quick to point to a low turnout of 43 percent.

Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced nine separatist leaders from the region of Catalonia to between nine and 13 years in prison for sedition over their role in a failed 2017 bid for independence, triggering widespread protests in the region.

Mr Wishart said the time for Plan B to take Scotland out of the Union had “not come yet”.

He said: ”What always surprises me is that so many people think that ‘No’ is immutable and just so readily accept it.

“But they will be overcome and that will be done by force of electoral numbers, and if necessary, an escalation of tactics by getting all our indy strategy ducks in a row.

“There may be a time for some sort of Plan B, but that time has not come yet.”

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