The Steamie: 'I don’t know when Scotland will become an independent country' says former SNP Westminster leader

Mr Blackford, who led the party in the Commons from 2017 to 2022 and stepped down as a MP at this year’s general election, called for a need to return the “imagination” and “hope” that the Yes campaign inspired in the 2014 referendum.

Speaking on a special edition of The Scotsman’s The Steamie podcast to mark the ten-year anniversary of the referendum, Mr Blackford said he could not put a timeframe on a second referendum or separation, but stressed he hopes it could be done within the next decade.

Looking back at the 2014 referendum, Mr Blackford wared “there is a big difference” in today’s political climate to “that hope, that optimism, that sense of belief” the Yes campaign instilled 10 years ago, warning that feeling “has somewhat eroded over the course of the last decade”.

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Asked why the Yes campaign couldn’t reach victory in 2014, Mr Blackford, who was heavily involved in the referendum, said: “We really needed to do more to explain to people how we were going to drive economic success in Scotland. 

“Arguably that’s more important today than it was 10 years ago because I can’t help feeling that we’ve got an enormous opportunity to grow the economy in Scotland.”

The former Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP bluntly admitted that the bruising general election “has been a wake-up call for the SNP” after the party was “given a very harsh lesson by the electorate”.

But he stressed the SNP needed to now “show people that you are on their side” and “show people that they should stick with you” going into the 2026 Holyrood election.

Asked if he would contemplate a return to frontline politics at the Holyrood election, Mr Blackford said he was “retired as a parliamentarian”, but said he remained unsure “what happens to me over the longer-term”.

Pressed over whether Scotland could become an independent country over the next 10 years, Mr Blackford said: “I don’t know when Scotland will become an independent country. 

“I desperately want Scotland to become an independent country - I want the country to be the best country it can be.

“It’s up to all of us on our side to inspire people. Can it be done within 10 years? It can be. But let’s listen to what people are saying, let’s recognise there is that political discourse that is not the best in the world.”

The former SNP Westminster leader said the SNP needs to “vive people the hope that they had in 2014”,

He added: “It will happen when the people of Scotland are demonstrating in large enough numbers that they want that to happen - that that’s the settled will of the people of Scotland.

“In the end, whether you are talking about Keir Starmer or anybody else in Westminster, they cannot continue to say no to what is the legitimate demands of the people of Scotland when that happens. 

“It’s the people that will ultimately determine that.”