Humza Yousaf faces a leadership revolt by Christmas: SNP rebels pledge rebellion against ‘weak’ First Minister after humiliating by-election defeat
- First Minister under fresh pressure as he prepares for SNP conference
SNP rebels have warned Humza Yousaf he will face a revolt by Christmas if he does not overhaul the party in the wake of its humiliating by-election defeat.
Enraged Nationalists have pledged a leadership rebellion if ‘weak’ Mr Yousaf does not radically change the SNP’s direction after losing Rutherglen and Hamilton West to Labour on Thursday.
Heaping intense pressure on the First Minister last night, they said he must focus on delivering for ordinary Scots struggling with a cost of living crisis rather than concentrating on independence blueprints and green policies.
They have also said that, in an effort to rescue the party from oblivion at the next general election, Mr Yousaf must perform an emergency Cabinet reshuffle to ‘clear out the deadwood’.
Mr Yousaf is said to be on borrowed time
One source suggested Mr Yousaf broker a ‘peace deal’ with former leadership rival Kate Forbes and install her as his deputy to steady the ship.
Plans for a revolt follow predictions from a leading pollster that if the Rutherglen result was replicated across the country at the next general election, the SNP would plunge from 48 to just six Westminster seats.
Amid a historic by-election defeat for the Nationalists, Labour’s Michael Shanks was elected as MP with a majority of 9,446, representing a 20.4 percentage point swing from the SNP.
Now, in his first interview since the result, outspoken rebel MSP Fergus Ewing has given Mr Yousaf two months to demonstrate he is capable of leading the party.
Mr Ewing, a key ally of Ms Forbes, said: ‘We’ve seriously lost trust. We must change course and we must change course radically. That must be done now and before Christmas.
‘If that fails to happen, then I fear for the future of the SNP succeeding in elections because, once you lose trust, you cannot expect to win elections.
‘It is only salvageable if Humza is honest and stands up there in Holyrood and says: ‘We’ve got a number of things wrong.
I’ve been reflecting on the result and people have spoken. We’re going to make changes and they’re going to be major changes, and I’ll be announcing them over the next few weeks.’ That’s all he needs to do.
Former leadership rival Kate Forbes could be installed as deputy to steady the ship
‘He may wish to change his team, for example, or have a reshuffle.’
Mr Ewing, the son of SNP stalwart Winnie Ewing, added: ‘If he decides to change, then I think people will look at him again.
And he could come to be a successful leader. But if he doesn’t do that, then that ain’t going to happen.’
The MSP for Inverness and Nairn’s stark warning comes as SNP insiders last night suggested there could be an impending ‘mutiny’ against Mr Yousaf’s leadership in the wake of last week’s drubbing.
One party source said: ‘Many of us are waiting in the wings, watching on for the time being, but there will be a mutiny if he does not change course soon, that’s for sure.’
Another added: ‘After Rutherglen, he just looks weak. Instead of banging on about the process of achieving a second independence referendum, we need to get support up for independence first.
‘We need to return to having a competent government and scrap nonsense policies like gender reform.
Focus on what really matters to people, like housebuilding programmes or sorting out massive fiscal black holes in public services.
‘Humza is on borrowed time. If he doesn’t do something by Christmas, him and his clique are toast.’
Ahead of the SNP conference next week, insiders have also said Mr Yousaf must drop his motion that would allow him to begin independence negotiations if his party wins the most seats at the next general election. ‘That idea is just incredible in the wake of Rutherglen,’ one source said.
Responding to suggestions that he could stave off a leadership challenge by bringing Ms Forbes in as Deputy First Minister, her friends refused to comment last night.
The former finance secretary was uncontactable, having jetted abroad on Friday after the by-election result.
But, reflecting on why his party faced such difficulty at the ballot box on Thursday, Mr Ewing set out the three causes of the SNP’s downfall.
He said: ‘Trust is the coinage or the currency of politics. We have really lost a lot of trust.
‘Our currency has been devalued over the last two years and that’s because of several things but I think the association with the Greens has been hugely damaging.
‘There are many, many people who fear, dislike, mistrust the Greens and think they should not be in government and moreover we should certainly not have brought them in voluntarily to government.’
He continued: ‘The second reason is that we’ve made so many promises and we fail to deliver and people now are pointing that out.
‘Obviously the A9 and A96 in the Highlands have been seminal, and unless that is addressed in the promised autumn statement, the SNP may as well shut up shop in the Highlands.
‘It’s as bad as that because it’s become a totemic symbol. You promised it and you fail to deliver.’
He added: ‘The third reason is that the policies we’ve been pursuing don’t really seem to go with the grain of society.
‘The SNP are not valuing, praising, rewarding, thanking, helping people. They’re hectoring, lecturing, inflicting pain.’
Mr Ewing, who was this month disciplined by the SNP for voting against Green Minister Lorna Slater in a vote of no confidence, said: ‘The ethos of the SNP was we put Scotland first. I think we’ve moved away from that.
We moved away from it by punishing fishermen over HPMAs [Highly Protected Marine Areas], by punishing small businesses over deposit return, by punishing short-term let providers – some of the most law-abiding, hard-working people on the planet.’
Speaking from his base in Glasgow, he admitted: ‘We’re taking livelihoods away.’
His eyes brimming with tears, he said: ‘But more than that, it is taking people’s spirit and hope away.
We don’t seem to realise that what we’re doing is inflicting pain on people. Not helping people, not putting Scotland first at all.’
In Dundee on Friday, after failing to attend the by-election count, Mr Yousaf admitted it had been a ‘disappointing night for the SNP’.
He said: ‘The buck does absolutely stop with me,’ but added: ‘This particular by-election had some very difficult contextual factors around it.’
Source: Read Full Article
