You could be excused for not expecting much from the first TV broadcast of the SNP leadership race. The hustings have so far remained civil and their content relatively repetitive. Everyone’s been very nice and, as recently as last Friday, even spent valuable time politely discussing their opponents’ best qualities. So last night’s fiery debate was an unexpected, yet welcome, surprise. All smiles from the start, the discussion fast faded into a venomous clash — a first in the contest, but also for today’s SNP.
For Kate Forbes especially, the gloves came off. ‘More of the same,’ Forbes announced during her introductory speech, ‘is not a manifesto. It’s an acceptance of mediocrity. We can do better.’ Not only a swipe at ‘continuity candidate’ Humza Yousaf, Forbes surprised viewers with such a conspicuous dig at current First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP.
For a party that has always displayed itself as undivided, this debate well and truly exposed the cracks.
Next came the ‘I’m the only candidate who…’ round. Yousaf stayed firm on his commitment to stand up to the Section 35 veto and a ‘progressive agenda’, saying he was the only candidate who would stand up to Westminster. Ash Regan remains convinced that her road to independence is the most viable, proclaiming that ‘the SNP has lost its way’ and she is the only candidate ‘that has a credible plan to build support for independence’. And Forbes drew upon her experience as finance minister, claiming she was the only candidate there who had ‘gone head to head with Rishi Sunak and won’.
Yet amongst the spear-throwing, practical steps to securing independence were nowhere to be seen. ‘Have you become the party who can’t deliver?’ asked STV news anchor Colin McKay. Yousaf and Forbes stuck to what they’ve said throughout this leadership campaign, that the best route to independence involves taking the time to win round ‘No’ voters. But are the current SNP membership on board with this slower approach?
Recent polling has found that SNP voters would prefer the next ‘indy ref’ to take place sooner rather than later, with 61 per cent keen to see a referendum within the next two years. While the research comes from voters rather than members, it is probable that members would be of a similar, if not stronger, opinion. In appealing to the membership, Regan may have gotten this one right: a faster move to an election, with a reliance on the unification of the wider Yes movement (rather than preaching to the unconverted) with the view that anything over 50 per cent of ‘Yes’ votes constitutes a mandate for independence.
Regan also revealed that earlier today she had spoken to Scotland’s pro-independence parties to ask for support on her ‘ballot box gold standard method’ of delivering independence. They were all ‘excited’ by her plans, she claimed mid-debate. Yet within minutes, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, Patrick Harvie, declared this statement was ‘false’. Twenty minutes after that, Ash Regan’s campaign team released a statement clarifying that four of five pro-independence parties had expressed ‘excitement and support’ for her plans, while the Scottish Greens not only ignored her call, but ignored the message she left them too.
What of the other candidates? Yousaf said it was ‘absolutely vital’ to retain the SNP’s relationship with the Greens, but Forbes refused to give a direct answer. Strange, after so much talk of uniting the pro-independence movement.
But it was during the cross-examination section that the debate really heated up. First up was Forbes who has, in recent days, been accused of ‘sounding like a primary school teacher’. She didn’t hold back this evening, launching immediately into a furious tirade aimed at Yousaf:
‘Well, Humza, you've had a number of jobs in government. When you were a transport minister, the trains were never on time. When you were justice minister, the police were strained to breaking point. And now as health minister, we've got record high waiting times. What makes you think you can do a better job as first minister?’
While Yousaf batted back the criticism, the audience sat in shock. A little later on, Kate lashed out once again at Yousaf when asked if she would put him in her cabinet. 'Is there room for Humza Yousaf?' enquired Colin McKay. ‘Oh, there is room for Humza Yousaf,’ she asserted. ‘Maybe not in health — but there is room for Humza Yousaf, definitely.’ Consequently Yousaf accused Forbes of ‘leaving us about £600 million short’ following negotiations with Rishi Sunak, and pushing policies in her campaign that have already failed. Meanwhile, Regan labelled both her opponents’ plans for independence as ‘wishy-washy’.
Within minutes, viewers jumped onto Twitter to air their dismay at the turn the discussion had taken. ‘To attack party colleagues and the record of your own government is a disgrace,’ wrote an SNP campaigner. ‘It is not how we do things in the SNP.’ ‘To undermine your own government, almost pretending you had nothing to do with it, is disgraceful and dishonest,’ tweeted another. ‘In ten and a bit years of covering Scottish politics, I’ve never seen anything like that,’ writes Kieran Andrews of the Times. ‘Cabinet ministers suggesting colleagues are unfit to govern and questioning their competence. How does the party come back together after this?’
For a party that has always displayed itself as undivided, this debate well and truly exposed the cracks. While candidates are expected to poke holes in each others’ plans, the brutality with which attacks were made this evening was unprecedented. After the debate was brought to a close, Bernard Ponsonby, STV special correspondent, summed it up: ‘If you’d said one of the candidates was SNP, one was Labour and one was Conservative, you really wouldn’t be surprised — such was the nature of the crossfire.’
Will the aggression seen last night help light fires in the bellies of those on-the-fence members? It seems likelier that it will further destroy the credibility of the SNP — and help pave the way for a Labour or Tory leader into Holyrood.
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