The SNP’s partygate deceit

For weeks now, much of Westminster has been in full hue and cry of Boris Johnson over partygate. While some of the PM’s critics have legitimate grievances; others frankly, do not. Mr S has rarely seen a scandal spawn so much cant, humbug and windbaggery, as life-long opponents of the PM queue up to issue yet another demand for him to go. And what better embodiment of such self-righteous moralising than ardent Boris-basher, Ian Blackford?

The SNP leader popped up at yesterday’s Commons debate to play another game of Blackford bingo. All the usual buzzwords were there: ‘public trust’, ‘shame’, ‘dignity’. Honour in public life – drink! Tory sleaze and corruption – have another! He even got his fifteen moments of TV time after repeatedly accusing Johnson of misleading the House, forcing Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to eject him. Laudable stuff – except that his own party’s record is far from spotless either. Blackford can talk of a ‘culture of contempt’ but his own leader, Nicola Sturgeon, was found to have misled Holyrood by a parliamentary committee, just last year. What could be more contemptuous than that?

As for his efforts to quote Sue Gray’s criticisms of No. 10’s ‘failures of leadership and judgment,’ Mr S would only remind the honourable member for Ross, Skye and Lochabe of the SNP’s record on its mis-management of government. It was just 15 months ago that the FDA union, which represents high-ranking UK civil servants, reported it had received ‘more complaints about bullying’ by Scottish government ministers than across all other UK ministerial departments combined. According to the FDA, there had been 30 ministerial bullying complaints by workers in five Scottish departments over the past decade, compared to only ‘a handful’ in Westminster. True leadership, eh?

And while Blackford was moralising in the Commons, back at party HQ the SNP’s savvy social-media team was firing up the graphics for a punchy Twitter campaign. Claiming Gray’s report had ‘more blackouts than a Downing Street party’ it showed an image of a heavily redacted piece of paper, ignoring, of course, that the senior civil servant’s hands were tied by the Met’s decision to launch a criminal probe. 

While Mr S is always glad to see a party stand up for transparency, it’s worth recalling the ‘deep frustration’ of James Hamilton, when he released his independent report into whether Nicola Sturgeon breached the ministerial code. For, in order to comply with court orders in force in Scotland to protect the identities of others involved in the Alex Salmond saga, a number of his passages of his 61-page report were, er, redacted by the Scottish government before its publication.

Funnily enough, Steerpike doesn’t expect to see that plastered on an SNP poster any time soon.