Last night was shaping up to be a night of the long sgian dubhs for the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford. SNP backbenchers have grown unhappy with Blackford’s leadership after several scandals during his tenure. Yesterday a challenge briefly emerged from Aberdeen South MP Stephen Flynn, though Blackford has managed to survive the attempted coup.
Flynn has reportedly been on manoeuvres against Blackford for months. Yesterday he made his move, informing the party’s compliance officer Ian McCann he planned to challenge Blackford at the Westminster group’s AGM in December. The next step of the plan was for a gang of so-called men in grey kilts, led by culture spokesman Brendan O’Hara, to tell their leader he had to go before the meeting. Despite MPs privately briefing that they would be happy with ‘anyone but Blackford’, the Daily Telegraph understands the challenge has been killed off. Before an appearance on Question Time last night, Blackford reportedly managed to persuade Flynn to withdraw his challenge. It’s not clear what persuaded him to do so, but Flynn later confirmed in a tweet that he was not standing.
It is clear that all is not well at the heart of Scotland’s electoral behemoth
This is the second coup attempt Blackford has survived this year after Alyn Smith and Stewart McDonald reportedly tried to oust him in March – though Smith, Stewart and Blackford all deny this ever happened. Blackford now looks likely to survive as the Westminster group’s leader until the general election. Nevertheless he is the leader of a very unhappy tribe.
Blackford is viewed with increasing resentment within the Westminster SNP group because of a number of scandals that have occurred on his watch. He often walks into traps over factual inaccuracies: earlier this year he claimed the UK would continue to pay the state pension in an independent Scotland. He’s also fallen out with rebellious backbencher Joanna Cherry – something almost uniquely rare within the SNP – over the battle between transgender and women’s rights.
But what seems to have tipped things over the edge is his handling of the Patrick Grady scandal. Grady had been found guilty by a Commons investigation for sexually harassing a young staffer while serving as chief whip. Blackford came under heavy criticism after a recording was leaked from an SNP group meeting where he urged his MPs to offer the perpetrator ‘as much support as possible’. At the same time the victim felt ‘unsupported’ and ‘ambushed’ by Blackford who had made him attend a meeting with Grady. Privately, MPs felt the party was badly exposed by the incident, given a similar cover up with the Tory deputy chief whip had led to the resignation of Boris Johnson. The handling of the Grady scandal was something that made the argument that an independent Scotland under the SNP would be free of sleaze somewhat less convincing.
Although Blackford survives, the fact that a leadership challenge even made it out into the open indicates a new chapter in his and Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership of the party. The SNP, at Holyrood and in London, are both infamous and envied for strict party discipline. Stepping out of line can result in loss of funding and party support and even complete ostracisation by the party machine.
But now rebels are growing in confidence. First came Cherry’s outspoken criticism of the party on bullying and women’s rights. Now this coup attempt, which also comes just weeks after seven MSPs broke the whip over a vote on gender recognition reforms – the first time a minister had resigned on a point of principle in the party’s entire history. The Westminster leader may have clung on, but it is clear that all is not well at the heart of Scotland’s electoral behemoth.
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