Well, well, well. It’s been a tumultuous time for the SNP recently, and no one knows that better than their own spin doctor Murray Foote. But it all seemed to prove too much this evening as he announced his shock resignation. Standing down after four years of spinning for the party, Mr Foote issued a rather, erm, coded statement.
Acting in good faith and as a courtesy to colleagues at party HQ, I issued agreed party responses to media enquiries regarding membership. It has subsequently become apparent there are serious issues with these responses. Consequently, I concluded this created a serious impediment to my role and I resigned my position within the SNP Group at Holyrood.
This comes after Mr Foote slammed ‘wholly inaccurate’ rumours that the SNP’s membership had decreased by 30,000 as ‘drivel’. But yesterday the party cracked under pressure from Ash Regan’s campaign team, which forced them to publish their membership figures, revealing quite an incredible exodus – of 30,000. Now SNP MP Pete Wishart has called for the ‘broadest possible inquiry’ into the matter. Did this U-turn in party messaging cause a metaphorical punch or two to be thrown between colleagues at SNP HQ? Mr S can only guess…
This isn’t the first time Mr Foote’s career has made its way into the limelight. The former Daily Record editor was also the brains behind the controversial anti-independence ‘Vow’ front page that many credit with swinging the referendum. Quite a jump, then, to spinning for the largest pro-independence. Murray Foote has always denied that his new job was anything to write about, saying he was always ‘sympathetic’ towards independence. He’s certainly got a funny way of showing it…
So what lies in store for Murray Foote next? And what for the future of the SNP? If haemorrhaging members wasn’t concerning enough, the nationalists should take their own staff quitting as a duly-timed wake up call.
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