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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s party said news of a new party to “split the SNP vote” will be “music to the ears of the Unionists” after Mr Thompson announced he is leaving the Nationalist party after 55 years. Mr Thompson said he will help shape the “Alliance for Independence” party, whose slogan will be “max the Yes”, to win 24 seats at the 2021 Holyrood election.

But a SNP spokesman hit back saying: “Talk of splitting the SNP vote will be music to the ears of the Unionists.

“Those seeking to game the Holyrood proportional electoral system are putting at risk the SNP’s progress.”

Their attack comes after Mr Thompson announced he will form a new independence party to drag Scotland out of the Union.

He said the party would not challenge the SNP in constituency seats and it would only contest regional list seats in an effort to increase the number of pro-referendum MSPs at Holyrood.

He told the Daily Record: “We are looking at anything between eight and 24 MSPs.”

“Every regional list vote for the SNP will have no impact. It will achieve nothing. Whereas if a lot of these votes came to AFI we can garner a lot of MSPs.

“On everything else they can vote according to their own party programme, or according to their own views and conscience.

“As soon as we launch, and I formally join the Alliance, I will leave the SNP, which won’t be easy for me, as I have been in the SNP since 1965.”

He said the party aimed to increase the number of pro-independence representatives in the Scottish Parliament.

Mr Thompson said: “I do believe, tactically, we can gain far more independence-supporting seats by having a different vote on the regional lists.

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His comments come after veteran SNP MP Kenny MacAskill floated the idea of a separate pro-independence party standing in next year’s Holyrood election.

The former Scottish justice secretary, now MP for East Lothian, said last week that the “Both Votes SNP” tactic that has been adopted by the party “just doesn’t work”.

But Constitution Secretary Mike Russell insisted his former Holyrood colleague Mr Thompson was “mistaken in his analysis”.

Mr Russell told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “Anybody is entitled to join or to vote for any party that they wish.

“I know Dave very well, I’ve worked very well with him. I think that he’s mistaken in his analysis.

“I believe that, in order to get independence, we need a unified movement.

“The SNP is clearly a key part of that movement – I’ve been a member of the SNP for more than 40 years and I’m certainly not changing my view.”

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