SNP members are gripped by "utter depression" over John Swinney's lack of strategy to achieve independence, a veteran Nationalist has warned.
Alex Neil said senior figures "clearly don't have a clue how to advance the independence agenda" as the party gathers for its annual conference in Aberdeen.
Mandate and tactics
Swinney used last year's gathering to declare he would have a mandate to secure an IndyRef2 if the SNP won a majority of MSPs at the 2026 Holyrood election - only to fall seven seats short.
The First Minister has since switched tactics and claimed the Parliament's "pro-independence majority" - when Green MSPs are also included - should be enough for the UK Government to agree to another referendum.
But Andy Burnham has repeatedly ruled out an IndyRef2 under his watch - pointing to a 2024 Labour manifesto commitment to oppose the break-up of the UK.
Neil's warning
Neil, who served as a Cabinet minister under both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, said there needed to be a focus on pushing support for independence "north of 55 per cent".
Asked how he viewed the mood of SNP members ahead of conference, Neil said: "I think there's utter depression. Because, quite frankly, you look at the performance of the Scottish Government, and they are deeply unimpressed, as are most people in Scotland.
"You compare it to the Salmond government, which was doing big things on a daily basis, and what is this Government doing?
"They engage in local government and health service reorganisation - both of which are required - but they go about it in the most ham-fisted way, not doing their homework, and doing it in a rush.
"It's bound to end-up like the National Care Service proposals - a shambles that will not, in its current format, get through Parliament. Even the Greens are critical over how they're going about it."
Neil added: "They clearly don't have a clue on how to advance the independence agenda."
Conference launch
The former MSP said Swinney should use his keynote speech on Saturday to set-out how he will achieve independence.
He continued: "If the SNP wants independence it must be perceived as running a competent government. It also needs to update the case for independence - the case that was put in 2014 is now out of date on a whole range of issues.
"They need to build up support for independence to north of 55 per cent. Once you get north of that, and it becomes the settled will of the Scottish people, the game's a bogey and Westminster can't say no."
It comes as the SNP claimed it would use its conference to launch the "biggest pro-independence campaign since the referendum".
Swinney said: "The wind is in the sails of the SNP and the Yes movement – we have been emphatically re-elected, we have the biggest pro-independence majority in the history of the Parliament, independence is in the lead, the momentum behind constitutional change across these islands is building and there is a growing consensus we have the right to decide our own future.
"Our task is to build on that momentum, which is why at this Conference we will be launching the Choose Scotland campaign – the biggest campaign since the referendum and what will be the most sophisticated pro-independence campaign Scotland has ever seen."
