It’s a day ending in ‘y’, which means the Scottish Nats are arguing amongst themselves again. Ex-SNP MP Mhairi Black has taken a pop at the party’s former Dear Leader Nicola Sturgeon in a new BBC documentary released this week about her time in politics. In the programme – in which Black blasts Westminster culture and laments the toll it took on her mental health – the outspoken nationalist took a pop at Sturgeon over the SNP’s careerist culture.
In the Beeb’s new show, one of Black’s friends read out an article about the former first minister’s comments that there were too many careerists in the Scottish National party. Speaking at the Charleston literary festival in Sussex last summer, the ex-party leader had claimed that young people were entering politics ‘for all the wrong reasons’ – ruffling feathers among her former colleagues by remarking that: ‘Politics, including in my own party now, is probably too full of young people who have just come through the political ranks.’ Laughing at the piece, Black hit back: ‘She’s right – but it was on her watch.’ Ouch.
If the Nats pushed out their career politicians, the party would have few people left. Like Black, the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn studied politics at university – with the latter initially working as a councillor before becoming an MP. Meanwhile SNP Net Zero Secretary Màiri McAllan – who is thought to have leadership ambitions herself – was a government adviser before being elected to Holyrood. And Sturgeon herself climbed her way to the top, working through the education, health and justice briefs before serving as Alex Salmond’s deputy for seven years. Talk about hypocrisy, eh?
Further rifts have emerged over the party’s stance on nuclear weapons – while leadership hopeful Flynn has been criticised by colleagues over his remarks on US-Ukraine relations. They’re back to fighting like Nats in a sack…
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