Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Can anyone stop the SNP’s drive for independence?

Nicola Sturgeon’s reshuffle of her Westminster team is more than a post-election shake-up of the Nationalist front bench. For one thing, it represents a shift to the next generation. Mhairi Black (25), who became something of a political superstar upon her election in 2015, has been promoted to Scotland spokeswoman; freshly elected Stephen Flynn (31) is suddenly shadowing the chief secretary to the Treasury; David Linden (29) will head up housing and local government policy; and Amy Callaghan, the 27-year-old who unseated Jo Swinson in East Dunbartonshire, will lead on pensions. The SNP has a wealth of talent coming up and is giving them their first step on the ladder.

The SNP’s front bench line-up is markedly more impressive than Labour’s. For instance, contrast foreign affairs spokesman Alyn Smith and defence lead Stewart McDonald with what Jeremy Corbyn’s party has to offer. Meanwhile, the depleted Scottish Tory ranks (they lost half their seats to the SNP in December) may struggle to match the Nationalists in political heft, as well as number. For all the criticisms of Black — some of them tinged with rank snobbery — she is, despite her youth, a much more seasoned media performer than the somewhat reclusive Scottish Secretary Alister Jack. The Scottish press, for the most part ill-disposed to the Tories, will relish Black’s plain-spoken approach against the mild-mannered businessman.

Another announcement worth noting is the news that Kirsty Blackman, the SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster, will be assuming ‘a key strategic role leading on the constitution, as preparation builds up for Scotland’s independence referendum’. The specifics of this post aren’t clear yet but it suggests the Nationalists are gearing up to pile more pressure on the government to grant them their second referendum. Nicola Sturgeon’s party took 47 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the general election, 48 if you included Neale Hanvey, who was dropped as a candidate before polling day over antisemitism

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