Absentee SNP
The SNP Deputy Leader's proposal that their MPs won't take their seats if elected proves they cannot offer change. It is an enormous gift for Labour.
Are the SNP trying to lose the election? They are opposing popular taxes while pushing unpopular ones on people on modest incomes. The conceit that they represent a more caring politics to Westminster Tories is coming apart as civil society leaders launch astonishing attacks on them after a huge cut to the housing budget in the middle of a child homelessness crisis. Their backbenchers are taking to the airwaves to suggest the only way to fix the mess Yousaf left the NHS in is to introduce charges for healthcare.
If the SNP are holding back the bad news until after the general election, just imagine what more is coming.
Since Labour’s recovery in the polls, the SNP unwisely turned all their fire on a party not yet in government. This was foolish for three reasons.
Firstly, Labour’s recovery in Scotland is built on the feeling among voters that the party can offer change more quickly than the nationalist movement. Treating Labour like they have already won the election only adds to that sense of immediate change being available.
Second, focusing your fire on Labour opens the SNP to the accusation that they stand as a roadblock to change. Defining themselves in relation to a still-imaginary Labour government invites them to take positions like opposing a windfall tax on the energy companies sending out eye-watering energy bills.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the SNP are no longer the loudest anti-conservative voice in Scotland. They have vacated that ground allowing Labour to take their place.
It is the SNP’s Deputy Leader though who had me wondering if this is a party with a political death wish. He writes in the Sunday Herald today that SNP MPs may not take their seats in the House of Commons if re-elected in the General Election.
The SNP’s strategic weakness is that it can’t offer the change that people want. In the aftermath of their referendum defeat Nicola Sturgeon faced the same risk, but back then people (rightly) didn’t believe that Labour were going to win the General Election. This allowed Sturgeon to frame the election about sending Scottish voices to the House of Commons - memorably captured in the SNP advert with the green benches reupholstered in tartan.
Then there wasn’t an alternative, more credible form of change on the ballot. Now there is.
Instead of trying to find a credible offer of change the SNP pivoted straight into a post-election world where they oppose a UK Labour government. That hasn’t worked for them so far, but for Keith Brown to suggest that they won’t even take their seats is an extraordinary gift to Labour.
He is providing the ultimate evidence that the SNP offers no change for Scotland. Worse, he is demolishing the Sturgeon-era argument that SNP MPs are more powerful voices for Scotland. Voting SNP now risks there being no Scottish voices in the Commons, no power for Scotland, and no change for Scotland.
Elect a Labour MP who will do their job: delivering higher pay, more secure work, and quality jobs for workers. Or elect an SNP MP who won’t turn up for work.
Thank you, Keith.