Scottish independence: Michael Moore seeks bigger role for Electoral Commission

SCOTTISH Secretary Michael Moore is to use a row over what Alex Salmond said concerning legal advice on an independent Scotland’s future in Europe to demand a powerful role for the Electoral Commission in the 
independence referendum.

Mr Moore will use a speech to the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ conference today to attack the SNP’s assertions that an independent Scotland would automatically be handed membership of the European Union.

The move came after Mr Salmond referred himself to a panel of advisers to look into claims he misled Scotland by wrongly indicating the SNP had sought advice to back up its case that the country would remain in the EU.

Mr Moore will tell the conference in Dunfermline that the row showed the Scottish Government should not be allowed to set the referendum campaign spending limits and decide the wording of the question voters will be asked in 2014.

The SNP government has said it will consult the Electoral Commission on the wording and on campaign spending before putting proposals to the Scottish Parliament, as part of the Edinburgh agreement between the Scottish and UK governments last week.

Mr Moore is expected to say: “Just this week, the SNP got a taste of what happens when politicians play fast and loose with Scotland’s future to meet their own narrow ends. We can’t have debate conducted on these terms.

“There is no other body with the experience and neutrality of the Electoral Commission. To over-rule its judgment would invite the charge of rigging and bias.”

SNP MSP Stewart Maxwell said: “The anti-independence campaign are guilty of complete hypocrisy – it is they who want to ‘rig’ the referendum rules.