Another day, another SNP spat. Humza Yousaf spent the weekend trying to drum up support amongst his core voters for his nationalist party, which is predicted to lose almost half of its Westminster seats to Labour in the general election. The main problem with the First Minister’s message, however, was that it seemed to focus on the wrong target.
‘In this election, we have the chance to finally make Scotland Tory-free, for the first time in almost a quarter of a century,’ Yousaf roared at his audience. ‘Most seats across Scotland are a straight fight between the SNP and the Tories. Let the message from our party be heard loud and clear by every Tory MP in Scotland. Your time is up and the SNP is coming for you.’
Scary stuff. But Mr S isn’t convinced Yousaf has set his sights on the right competitor — and some Nats aren’t so sure about it all either. In fact, the longest serving SNP MP and former Runrig bandmate Pete Wishart has now labelled the message ‘unhelpful’, adding on Twitter: ‘I won’t be using this “Tory free” rhetoric as part of my campaign.’ Awkward…
Wishart is joined in his bemusement by former Nicola Sturgeon aide Liz Lloyd, who described Yousaf’s messaging as ‘a little confusing’. Lloyd added that trying to sell the First Minister’s claim that the election is a ‘straight fight’ between the Tories and the Nats would be ‘difficult’ in Scotland’s central belt — not least as in many constituencies the Labour party is poised to make gains. The former aide also sent out a word of warning to the SNP, telling BBC Scotland that support for independence is ‘not going to shift at this election’ and that the people of Scotland would be more interested in seeing what the party can deliver with their current powers. It doesn’t reflect well when you can’t even get your own party on side…
It rounds off a bad news week for the First Minister. His former health secretary Michael Matheson was found to have breached the MSP code of conduct over his £11,000 iPad scandal and Yousaf is facing pressure to force Matheson to quit as an MSP. The First Minister hasn’t escaped scrutiny either, facing questions about why he has not declared his family’s £1.3 million rental property empire. So much for all those promises of ‘openness and transparency’…
Comments