Under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership, the SNP was renowned for its discipline, unity and its impressive electoral success. Since the former first minister resigned, a series of revelations have chipped away at the party’s reputation leaving Scotland’s dominant party standing on shaky ground. If people had cared to look they would be forgiven for thinking that decay has always been present in the SNP – and the leaked video of the former first minister lecturing her politicians about SNP finances back in March 2021 doesn’t help matters – but it is the extent of the rot that is hard to stomach.
And no one feels this more than First Minister Humza Yousaf: barely in the post for three weeks after being elected as the establishment’s ‘continuity’ candidate, Yousaf is now desperately trying to distance himself from the ancien regime. Even before the party corruption had been exposed, Yousaf was not in the strongest of positions. Elected on a weak mandate, the new SNP leader only narrowly defeated Kate Forbes by 52 to 48 per cent. He has little authority, direction or strategy. And it is not too harsh to say that Yousaf is now less a ‘continuity’ candidate and more a transitional leader – an interregnum from one era to another.
Is the SNP finished, then? For all its problems, the Scottish National party still has some advantages about which its opponents should not become complacent. It is important to remember that the party has got into the habit of winning elections; it likes being in government in a way the UK Labour party after a period does not; and its opponents are divided and will split the pro-union vote in 2024 (where it counts with first past the post) and to a lesser extent in 2026 in the next Scottish Parliament elections (under proportional representation).
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