EDINBURGH: The Scottish National Party (SNP) will fight the next general election in the United Kingdom with independence `front and centre` of its campaign, First Minister Humza Yousaf said on Saturday.

Addressing a conference of Scotland`s governing party in the city of Dundee, Yousaf vowed he would seek fresh negotiations with the UK government about independence if the SNP wins the most Scottish seats in the election expected next year.

`Let me be clear, if the SNP does win this election, then the people will have spoken,` he said.`We will seek negotiations with the UK Government on how we give democratic effect to Scotland becoming an independent nation.

Yousaf`s remarks come as public support wanes for the SNP after the arrest of its former leader and first minister Nicola Sturgeon, the key ngurehead of the independence movement in recent years.

The Dundee meeting is the first in-person conference since Yousaf, 38, replaced her in March, and the party started to see a drasticslidein its popularity.

Sturgeon, who came to power after the last failed 2014 referendumon Scotland breaking away from the UK, unexpectedly announced her resignation in February, saying she lacked the `energy` to carry on.

She was arrested and interviewed by police earlier this month over claims of mismanagement of SNP finances, weeks after her husband, the party`s former chief executive, had also been detained. Both have denied any impropriety and have been released without charge.

Support shifts The SNP has been the dominant force in Scottish politics for nearly two decades.It currently has 64 members of the Scottish parliament (MSPs), out of a total of 129 and governs in a coalition with the pro-independence Greens.

Meanwhile, it currently represents 48 of Scotland`s 59 constituencies in the UK parliament in London. But in the wake of the funding scandal, polls show sharp drops in support for the party.

A recent YouGov survey suggested it would haemorrhage seats if a general election were held now, losing nearly half its seats.

Labour which wants Scotland to remain part of the UK with alongEngland,Wales and Northern Ireland would gain 23 seats there to bring their tally north of the English border up to 24. The Scottish Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, also prounion parties, would each take four seats, according to the poll.

Patrick English, an associate director at YouGov, said it confirmed that the recent bad news stories have hit SNP support.

`Not since 2010 have either the Scottish Nationalists failed to win more than 30 seats at a general election contest, or Labour surpassed seven (in Scotland),` he noted.

Butsupportforindependencehasnot been dented in the same way, complicating the picture. `The level of support for independence is still running at 48 percent...

and Scotland continues to be divided almost down the middle, polling expert John Curtice told BBC radio on Saturday. The UK government has insisted the 2014 referendum settled the independence question for a generation.

But Sturgeon reinvigorated the issue after the Brexit vote two years later, when most Scots opted to remain in the European Union, while a majority across the UK voted to leave.-AFP