Scottish National party in no mood to party as
contest finally ends
John Crace
After the longest short leadership campaign in
history, Humza Yousaf was declared winner of a divided SNP
Mon 27 Mar
2023 18.47 BST
They did
their best to turn it into a celebration. They had hired the Thistle suite at
Murrayfield, the home of Scottish rugby. Catering staff had laid out fresh
pastries. But the mood inside was nervy. Edgy, even. No one quite knew what to
think. Was this an ending or a beginning? Despite the positive spin, the upbeat
exterior, this wasn’t the Scottish National party as it generally likes to be
seen.
The SNP has
dominated Scottish politics for decades. Now it is at a crossroads. Its leader
for more than eight years has ruled almost as she pleased. Winning election
after election and trusting in a party discipline that is the envy of leaders
south of the border. A party way beyond the demands of normal democracy; one
whose leaders normally appear by alchemy rather than through a vote of party
members.
Rishi Sunak
and Keir Starmer would kill to have MPs as on message. Now, though, Nicola
Sturgeon has called it a day. And no one quite knows why. Is it as
straightforward as she claims – that she has just had enough? Or is there more
to it than that? The SNP is being investigated for allegations of fraud.
Sturgeon has been named in a damning report by a cross-party committee of the
Scottish parliament for costing the government hundreds of thousands of pounds
by declaring a preferential bidder for a ferry contract. Then there’s the
economy and the NHS. Both on their knees. Many Scots would now prefer their
government to be getting the basics right, rather than becoming a single-issue
party for independence.
It’s been
the longest short leadership campaign in history. Where hours felt like days.
One riven by acrimony. One where the SNP’s sores that have been kept hidden for
so long have been laid bare. Where the SNP’s mystique has been stripped away
and voters have come to realise that it can be just as petty and small-minded
as any other political party. A Pandora’s box. Unedifying. Disappointing. Most
people with anything to do with the campaigns have been willing them to come to
an end. Not least the Sturgeon continuity candidate and hot favourite, Humza
Yousaf. He had somehow managed to turn a one-horse race into a close contest in
less than six weeks.
But all
mediocre things must come to an end. And come midday on Monday the last votes
had been cast. All that remained was for the SNP to pretend this was a
leadership contest that it had always wanted. No one seemed fooled. Reporters
indulged in gallows humour while various SNP MPs and MSPs adopted rictus smiles
and tried to act the part.
There was
no sign of Sturgeon herself. She wouldn’t be there to anoint her successor. For
one thing, her presence might soak up too much attention. For another, various
SNP members might throw themselves at her feet and beg her to stay once they
realised what they had done. There’s no denying Nicola has a presence. She
looks and acts like a leader. More than can be said for the three hopefuls. All
of whom, we were told, had written acceptance speeches in advance. It would be
nice to think Ash Regan hadn’t spent too long on hers. She never had a prayer.
A few
minutes later than advertised, the families of Yousaf, Regan and Kate Forbes
filed in, followed by the candidates themselves a short while after. The SNP
election organiser, Kirsten Oswald, gave a few words, declaring the election
“historic” – whether this was a good thing or not, she didn’t elaborate –
before inviting Lorna Finn to announce the result. No one had secured the
necessary 50% on the first ballots, so it had gone to second preferences with
Regan eliminated. And once those had been counted, Yousaf had won. With 52% of
the vote compared with Forbes’s 48%. That ratio is turning out to be the
nemesis of UK politics.
Yousaf
looked more relieved than anything. As well he might. It was a lot closer than
many predicted. More than anything, the SNP was just another muddle. In a
straight choice between Yousaf, whom Forbes and Regan had dismissed as
incompetent and mediocre, and whose time as a minister has hardly been a
roaring success, and Forbes, who is against gay sex, sex outside marriage, and
probably only thinks sex within marriage is allowed providing neither partner
enjoys it, the SNP members had narrowly gone for the incompetent and the
mediocre.
In his
acceptance speech, he talked movingly of his pride in becoming the first Muslim
leader of the SNP – or any UK political party, for that matter – but he was
short on detail about what came next. He assured Forbes and Regan there was a
place for them within his government, though quite how they might feel serving
a man whose competence they trashed was left hanging.
He then ran
through his to-do list: the cost of living crisis; the NHS – one in seven Scots
is on a waiting list; independence. It turned out he was going to do
everything. Though he couldn’t account for why Sturgeon had failed, or point to
what he might do differently to succeed. It’s tricky being the continuity
candidate. Especially when the sainted Sturgeon’s record is being unpicked by
nearly half your own party.
Nor did
things become much clearer during the Q&A with the media. He would succeed
because he had a plan. Though he couldn’t say what that plan was. And he wasn’t
going to fob people off with easy soundbites, he said in an easy soundbite. And
he definitely didn’t think he needed to call a general election to establish a
mandate, though he did think Sunak ought to have called one when he became
leader. He was going to unite the country even though more than half didn’t
want independence. It was all a bit underwhelming. He sounded like a leader
created by ChatGPT.
There was
one person with a smile on her face: Forbes. She didn’t look remotely upset to
have lost. Rather, as she was surrounded by hacks at the end, she looked as if
everything had worked out just fine. She had laid down a marker. It was now
clear the SNP had to change. But luckily it wasn’t for her to sort out how.
That was Yousaf’s headache. She could bide her time gracefully. She – along
with Labour – may just have been the winner of this leadership election.
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