In a way I feel a bit sorry for Humza Yousaf. Not because he’s taken over a failing Government that he has been a part of, but because of the way his party is imploding around him in a way that he probably didn’t expect. He definitely knew that he was inheriting a deeply divided party, but maybe didn’t realise that the chalice was so full of poison.
Since his election as First Minister 3 weeks ago, two senior figures in the SNP have been arrested and released without charge in an investigation in to the Party’s finances and he has discovered that the party’s auditors resigned six months ago. You can tell that my husband is getting way too interested in this story because he’s been getting adverts for camper vans on Facebook. Yesterday he faced the press in an encounter that will be shown at media training courses as an example as how not to do it for years to come:
NEW: First Minister Humza Yousaf speaks for the first time following the arrest of the SNP treasurer Colin Beattie. @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/2726okGguS
— Connor Gillies (@ConnorGillies) April 18, 2023
We’ve been very used to Nicola Sturgeon’s very controlled media appearances for the past 8 years, so this was a massive contrast. Journalist Rob Hutton’s critique was brutal:
And let’s be clear, these surely are his thoughts, unmediated by anything as sophisticated as “spin” or “damage control”. The first minister seems to be gripped by a compulsion to speak whatever words have just popped into his brain, without the slightest consideration about what impact this might have on the situation. It’s compulsive viewing, the political equivalent of watching a toddler determinedly trying to work a fork into an electrical socket.
Our Rural Affairs spokesperson Molly Nolan drew another comparison on Twitter:
I know there’s many more pressing things going on at the moment but good grief. Mr Bean himself would surely have given a better interview than this
It was not the best build up to Yousaf’s big moment when he unveiled his programme for Government at Holyrood yesterday. And to be honest it wasn’t so much a programme for Government as a series of screeching U-turns. The deeply flawed deposit return scheme paused till next year, their flagship National Care Service paused. Those are both welcome, but I mean, if the only headlines that come out of such a statement is what you are not doing, you are in trouble.
Scottish Lib Dem Leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said that our party will be part of the change that is coming:
This First Minister’s relaunch has been utterly torpedoed.
This is a government in total paralysis and it is making reasonable-minded people rethink their support for the SNP.
Change is coming and Scottish Liberal Democrats will be part of what’s next. pic.twitter.com/gYqsui33k9
— Scottish Lib Dems (@scotlibdems) April 18, 2023
Here’s his question in full:
Everyone, including those SNP back benchers otherwise engaged today, knows that this First Minister’s relaunch has been utterly torpedoed. While he is focused on the turmoil in his own party, NHS waiting times are still being missed, more ferries are breaking down and record amounts of sewage are being dumped into Scotland’s rivers. This is a Government in total paralysis.
For those reasonable-minded people finally rethinking their support for the SNP, there is an alternative. Scottish Liberal Democrats will be part of the change that is coming. [Interruption.] There is nervous laughter coming from the SNP benches, but they know that it is true—[Interruption.]. They know that their vote is slipping away from them.
I am surprised that you can hear me over the sound of CVs being frantically updated from the Government benches.
I would like to ask the First Minister a question if I may, Presiding Officer. When he was health secretary, Humza Yousaf personally promised to clear down the atrocious mental health waiting lists by this March—March 2023. That came and went; it was an utter failure. How many more years will it be before people are treated on time?
In her Scotsman column this week, Christine Jardine had some suggestions about what they should be doing:
There is certainly no shortage of places they could look to make that progress and find common cause with those of us in other parties desperate to alleviate the issues facing our constituents. If, for example, the First Minister was revealing in his Programme for Government this week that he would, after all, create a dedicated minister for older people once again, rather than one for independence, he might find previously critical voices would welcome the move. Not least from those working in the voluntary sector to alleviate the loneliness felt by 100,000 elderly Scots every day.
Or perhaps by focusing on addressing the poverty which blights the lives of one in five Scots, he might find that praise follows.
I feel for my friends in the SNP. The atmosphere in the party is pretty awful at the moment and it’s not fun for them to go through.
It does feel like Scottish politics is going to get the change it’s needed for so long and the two nationalist parties who have used each other as the bogeyman will be exiting stage left and right, leaving the space for a more grown-up, responsible and respectful politics. There’s a lot to go through before we get there though.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
The rigged system Freda Jackson overcame to become an actress in the 1930s
Lib Dems pick Richard Kilpatrick as candidate for the Greater Manchester Mayoral election
Is Kier Starmer the new John Major?
Roland
David Warren
Peter Chambers
Carl Pierce
Martin Eggleston
20 Comments
When Nichola Sturgeon resigned I speculated on LDV that there was something else she wasn’t mentioning. Now we know and I would bet she knew too and didn’t want to be leader when the solids hit the extractor system.
It is a warning to all of us in politics that hiding the truth and obfuscating instead of being open ALWAYS leads to a bad end. How quickly the once mighty Ms Sturgeon has come to grief and all because of her obsession with control and her tendency to keep difficult matters secret.
I imagine that this whole ethos infects the SNP from top to bottom. Time for fresh elections and a change of government.
What no-one has yet mentioned is the possible effect on the Greens. Could they be dragged down by their close connection to the SNP? If I was them I’d be heading for the exits PDQ.
While this moment could’ve one of opportunity for our Party, it make also be one of peril. I say this because support for Scottish independence is remaining around the 50% mark despite the SNP slide – this suggests that there is a danger that some of the pro-independence vote will just move across to the Greens. Since the Greens already have more MSPs that we do, there must be a risk that a Labour-Green coalition is a more likely outcome after the next Holyrood election than a Labour- Liberal Democrat arrangement. We urgently need to build our credibility to reestablish ourselves as the 4th Party of Scotland
It’s been an interesting few weeks, especially for those of us who previously had concerns about transparency, and the lack of accountability within the SNP, but had been told that made us anti-Scottish.
I’m avoiding speculation on the criminal investigation, but even the most loyal of SNP supporters must now realise they were being kept in the dark and the smarter ones will understand that the centrally controlled way the SNP has been run in recent years isn’t healthy for a supposed democratic party, never mind a party of government. The rule on not challenging party policy in public was always an interesting one – one that did have electoral benefits for a while, but was always storing up problems for the future.
The SNP have the benefit of time before the next round of elections, and it will be interesting to see if they make a genuine attempt to listen to and address grievances, or they’ll continue their tradition of spinning their way out of trouble and hoping the dust will settle. An interview with DFM Shona Robison this morning suggests the latter, but I’m not sure the membership will accept that.
There seems to be very muted coverage of these seemingly extraordinary events occurring within the SNP Party. Imagine the furore if these revelations were happening within the Conservative or Labour party. The investigation at present appears to be into £600,000 of misapplied donations. Possibly the kind of false accounting charges that Donald Trump is facing in New York. Ed Davey, commenting in the Scotsman, has said SNP so scandal ridden they are ‘beginning to look like Tories’.
Joe Bourke:
You must have seen the unaccounted eye-watering profligate nepotism and fraud displayed by the Conservative Party. We do not have to imagine ‘the furore’ (or rather the lack thereof). I am sure the title Baroness Mone means something to you.
More generally I am a bit puzzled by the issue. Since Scottish independence is the raison d’être of the SNP, I would have thought any money spent on the party could be construed as contributing to the independence campaign. Of course if donated money has been used to feather the nest of individuals in the manner of Trump, it is quite another story.
@Martin
You make a very important point and is precisely why I don’t expect any charges to be brought at the end of the investigation. However, mud sticks and even if completely exonerated I still think there will be long term damage to the SNP.
Martin,
you are right. The Baroness Mone case was an outrageous abuse that didn’t seem to get the media attention it deserved.
We don’t know the full detail of the SNP investigation. However, the seizure as part of a police investigation into the finances of the party of a luxury £110,000 motor home from the house occupied by the mother of the SNP’s former chief executive, suggests an inquiry that currently runs deeper than co-mingling of restricted or designated funds with general reserves.
It’s worth remembering that the investigation into possible missing money was triggered by complaints from SNP members, and most of the early coverage was in blogs written by frustrated nationalists who were themselves angry at the lack of mainstream media interest.
I’m not sure how much coverage the Michelle Mone story warrants, but she’s already been on the front page of several national papers for an investigation that isn’t complete and she’s not half as powerful as the Chief Exec of the party of government in Scotland.
There’s been no published polling on Scottish independence since 3rd April & that had the “Yes” vote on 42% and ill-judged attempts to mop up homeless Yes voters would ruin our credibility with Yes voters as well as with the majority who want to stay in the UK. The next election is Westminster – the Scottish Greens are not winning any seats there despite predicted losses by the SNP.
@Fiona
The most recent poll did have 42% Yes, but also had No at 47% and 10% opting for don’t know. Excluding don’t knows would put this at 53% to 47% in favour of maintaining the Union. Meanwhile, support for the SNP if voting in a Westminster election was recorded as only 39% suggesting that a sixth of those who support independence would not vote SNP.
Surely, rather than harping on about “standing up for Unionism”, like the Tories and Labour, now is the opportunity for Liberals to revive our demand for “Devo Max” to replace the status quo? There is clearly a group of disparing Scots seeking more self-government and saddened pro-independence supporters who would welcome a real enhancement of Scottish powers while leaving Scotland within the Union.
@Mel, the don’t knows, who are not clamouring for an independent Scotland, shouldn’t be ignored. Many of those who say they would vote Yes aren’t clamouring for it either. I know you are very keen for us to support nationalism, but those who prioritise nationalism will not support us.
And that’s really the point. The SNP have lost their way because of their obsession with a single issue. They’ve relied on support from people who have put up with sub-standard governance and opaque leadership because they think it’s temporary until they win the prize.
What we need, and what a growing number of Yes voters/SNP supporters are realising is that we need better government. We need a Scottish government that prioritises the health service, education and the environment. Even the SNP realise it’s what their voters want, because the recent messaging is about “getting on with the day job”, and credit to Humza – he announced Scottish schools would be re-joining the international assessment scheme.
I do not understand Fiona’s protestations that Scots are not ‘clamouring for an independent Scotland’ with the apparent inference that we should be a unionist party.
We need to be clear what we do stand for. Rif Winfield makes the point that really should be obvious: we need to have an attractive offer of ‘Devo Max’ for the Scottish people.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats should be taking a lead on this. They can surely do a lot better than they are managing at present.
@Martin, I’m replying to Mel who said that 50% of Scots want independence (not true), and was alluding to the idea we should position ourselves as nationalists (as she’s done before) to pick up that vote.
We want the Scottish Government to use existing powers to improve our health service, education, housing, address poverty and the environment and no end of other things that get ignored because they know they can distract people with the constitution, and it’s tiring to have people not in Scotland undermine our efforts to hold the government to account because they are more interested in the Scottish constitution than our public services.
You may be a fan of Devo-Max. I’m not. We already have a devolved government with a lot of powers, but we have a government of a devolved parliament who don’t want devolution to work. There’s no clamour for Devo-Max either. I’m all for further devolution within the rest of the UK, and within Scotland, or the Scottish Parliament using their existing powers properly for the people of Scotland, and of course PR for all UK elections. Not devo-max.
You can’t always equate nationalism or just the SNP with independence. In a referendum campaign voters from other parties would also support independence and that happened last time. There may even be some SNP voters who would vote for unionism. Scotland voted by a clear majority to remain in the EU not outside and they would not get that under a labour government. So any diminution in support for the SNP would transfer to Labour and I don’t see how public services would improve under more centralised Westminster control.
The SNP is full of people who started with good intentions, but things go wrong when good intentions turn into blind faith more suited to religion. Things go very bad when strength of faith is valued more than competence and asking tricky questions is heresy.
The SNP have been challenged for years on their poor record keeping. Their unwillingness to keep proper diaries or take minutes from meetings should have made more people more angry. Their reluctance to provide information required by vote in the Scottish Parliament was about protecting their own, not standing up for Scotland or Scottish democracy, but excuses were made. Douglas Chapman resigned as treasurer after just a year saying he’d not received the necessary information to carry out his duties, and he was called a trouble-maker. The instinct to suppress information from even their own head of communications turned what should have been a straightforward announcement of membership numbers into a scandal, and the realisation someone as senior as Humza didn’t know the auditors had resigned was met with a shrug of the shoulders.
The Rutherglen by-election will be fascinating if it goes ahead.
The issue of donations raised for specifically designated purposes cannot be brushed off lightly as they constitute funds held in trust. The SNP auditor has resigned, an unusual circumstance and one that usually suggests disagreements with management as to whether the accounts show a “true and fair” view as required by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000/trust law.
The treasurer’s financial review in the SNP 2021 accounts contained a statement that appears to refer to the party’s controversial campaign war chest: “By 31 December 2021, a total of £740,822 had been raised through the independence-related appeals. These donations are also included in – and have been reconciled with – the total amount for donations included in party accounts from 2017 to 2021. Up until 31 December 2021 a total of £253,335 of expenditure had been applied against this income. The balance remains ‘earmarked’ for independence-related campaigning.
“Of course, the SNP is the party of independence and, as such, every action we take – directly or indirectly – is in support of winning independence. However, we continue to take a very strict approach to ensuring that this income supports expenditure directly related to the campaign for independence. We will ensure that an amount equivalent to the sums raised from these appeals will go directly to our work to secure a referendum and win independence.”
The transparency of the accounting and separation of trust funds from general party funds seems to be the crux of the complaints.being made by SNP supporters to the police.
@Fiona
I’m surprised you think I have ever suggested that the Liberal Democrats should become a nationalist party – I certainly can’t think of ever suggesting that as it is not what I believe. I have argued that the Liberal Democrats should not set out to be a Unionist Party as I believe it should be advocating a fully Federal or even Confederal model. I also believe we should be a truly a ‘democratic’ party and recognise the mandate for another independence referendum that was won by the Pro-independence majority in the Scottish Parliament at the 2021 elections. None of that properly be categorised as a ‘nationalist’ position.
We are already advocating a Federal model. There was no pro-independence majority of votes in 2021, and no mandate for the many reasons given in previous discussions on the issue. Democracy does not require us to agree with the false claims of our political opponents, or push their nationalist agenda.
When we let ourselves be distracted by the identity politics of nationalism the only winners are the Tories and the SNP. Neither party wants the public paying attention to the shoddy state of their governance, or holding them to account. We can and should be focusing on those things.
The issues here are not about Scottish Independence, they are about trust and faith in politics and political parties. The SNP has run two big fundraising drives for a 2nd Independence referendum. The money raised is not held in a separate account,nor is it required to be under accounting rules. Some of the cash raised is mixed with other party funds; some is invested in other assets such as Motor Vehicles including apparently a motor home (presumably a campaign bus of sorts). Part of the money may have been spent on general party outgoings to make up for income shortfalls arising from falling membership numbers . The falling membership was denied for some time.
If the net assets of the party are less than the unexpended part of the earmarked independence fund, then technically the party could be insolvent having negative free reserves. However, as long as they can reasonably expect to meet their liabilities as they fall due, they would not need to seek protection from creditors, but would need to convince their auditors that the solvency issues can be resolved in the ensuing 12 months. It is likely the audit report would draw attention to any material negative general reserve position.
As Mick Taylor comments above “It is a warning to all of us in politics that hiding the truth and obfuscating instead of being open ALWAYS leads to a bad end.”
Has anybody asked the SNP why, when there are several Scottish companies supplying camper vans / motors homes (and we assume so helping the Scottish economy with reasonably well paid jobs for local people), the SNP chose to import a motorhome from Germany, which is not actually in Scotland? Why did the SNP buy, rather than lease or hire just for the election period – which would make much more sense financially? Is the camper van electric? Has the SNP in government created the charging infrastructure for an electric campaign bus? What is Ian Blackford’s role or knowledge in all this?