The SNP will soon have more election campaign launch events than predicted Westminster seats if it continues at the rate it is going. The party’s latest launch — the third this year — was held in the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Glasgow on Sunday afternoon, where party activists and political candidates gathered to hear a series of speeches ahead of the looming general election.
Marketing itself as the party of ‘change’ (Mr S doesn’t have to look far to know where that’s been stolen from), the Nats slammed ‘continuity Keir’ as the ‘most right-wing Conservative Labour leader’ to date. But while the SNP is pledging to ‘eradicate’ child poverty and restore public ‘trust’ in politics, its new leader John Swinney was a little sheepish when quizzed on his party’s dwindling donations. With the SNP’s membership exodus and the ongoing police probe into party finances, the Nats have been struggling to raise funds — with many of their candidates resorting to Crowdfunders to help their campaigns.
Making a plea to potential donors, Swinney pledged that:
All I would say to party members and to donors is that I give them my personal assurance that every penny raised for the Scottish National party will be spent effectively and appropriately on the Scottish National party’s election campaign and winning independence.
It’s a rather sorry state of affairs when a party leader has to, er, explicitly promise his party will spend donations responsibly…
Swinney’s remarks come after the party’s former CEO Peter Murrell was charged with embezzlement of SNP funds in April, while Murrell’s wife and former first minister Nicola Sturgeon remains under investigation. The police raid of the former SNP leader’s home last year led to investigation into purchases of women’s razors, gardening equipment and an, um, £110,000 motorhome. And in a new twist, reports of potential money mismanagement by the SNP emerged over the weekend. It now transpires that the Scottish government may be set to hand back £450 million of EU funding that it failed to spend it on anti-poverty projects. The Nats have certainly had their minds on other issues over the last 12 months what with the police probe and unexpected changes in leadership — but the revelations hardly back up the SNP’s widely-parroted claim that Westminster is always to blame…
And on whether the Dear Leader Nicola Sturgeon would be a help or hindrance to the SNP’s election campaign, Swinney told journalists: ‘I very much welcome Nicola’s participation in the election campaign.’ Not enough to invite her along to the party’s big campaign bash apparently, as the former first minister was a no-show…
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