Alex Salmond’s flagship policy of holding a referendum on Scottish independence next year was sunk yesterday after the Liberal Democrats vetoed the move.

Sources close to the first minister admitted there was almost no chance of his minority government securing parliamentary support to put the issue to a public vote ahead of the next Holyrood election in 2011.

At a special conference in Dunfermline yesterday, the Lib Dems voted to rule out support for a referendum pencilled in for St Andrew’s day next year, claiming it would dilute efforts by politicians to pull Scotland out of recession.

However, the Lib Dems said they might support a referendum after the next Scottish parliament election, which could lead to it being held in 2012.

Salmond is now preparing to try to salvage his plan by offering the Lib Dems a place in a coalition government in 2011, if the SNP again emerges the biggest party, in exchange for backing the poll.

Lib Dem opposition to a referendum prevented a coalition with the SNP in 2007. Salmond believes Tavish Scott, the Lib Dem leader, will be unable to refuse in the face of immense pressure from colleagues after being out of government for four years.

“Tavish might still be against a referendum come 2011, but he would come under tremendous pressure from his colleagues to drop his opposition,” said a source close to Salmond.

“We have shown that minority government can work and we don’t need a coalition with the Lib Dems to function, so all the pressure will be on them when it comes to future coalition talks.”

Some of Scott’s senior colleagues believe agreeing to a referendum would be a price worth paying to ensure the party’s return to power.

George Lyon, a Lib Dem MEP who would support a referendum when the economic climate improves, said: “Unfortunately, in the 2007 election, we got boxed into a position where we were seen to be opposing a referendum under any circumstances.

“We should make it crystal clear to people that we do not oppose a referendum being used at some stage if there is a proposal to leave the United Kingdom.”

He said that leaving open the option of support for a referendum in future would give the party “options we don’t currently have — on coalitions and how we work with other parties”.

Lib Dem MPs and MSPs have been disappointed at the party’s poor profile and poll ratings since its eight-year coalition with Labour ended with the SNP’s victory in 2007. While in power, the party had several senior ministers, including Scott.

Murdo Fraser, the deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said Salmond should dump the referendum plan.

“Rather than waste time, effort and public money pursuing the minority whim of independence, the SNP should get on with what it was elected to do. The SNP should stop obsessing at the extremes of the constitutional debate,” he said.

The Labour MSP Pauline McNeill said that it was clear that the SNP could not win a majority for a vote on independence and urged Salmond to focus on the economic crisis. “This issue is an unnecessary distraction when everyone in the Scottish parliament should be working together to protect jobs and get Scotland through the recession,” she said.

But the SNP leader intends to press ahead with plans to publish a referendum white paper later this month, and a bill early next year, to keep the issue of independence on the agenda and bolster his election hopes. He plans to claim during the next Westminster and Holyrood campaigns that only the SNP is prepared to trust voters to decide their constitutional future.

Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader, has said he is not opposed to a referendum in principle, but he will not support it in the present economic climate.

A spokesman for Michael Russell, the constitution minister, said: “There have been umpteen U-turns by opposition parties on the referendum issue, and there will no doubt be umpteen more as we bring the bill forward.”

A coalition would give the SNP the necessary support to push through other controversial policies that the Lib Dems support, including replacing council tax.

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