Nationalist politicians are never happy unless they’ve something to be unhappy about. Rage fuels their machine.
And, so, it was hardly surprising that various senior SNP figures reacted with exhausting anger to Labour leader Keir Starmer’s speech at his party conference earlier this week.
Over recent years, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has made it clear that she would be willing to work with Labour if it won most seats in a general election but fell short of having an overall majority.
But Starmer is having none of that, and he received rapturous applause when he told delegates in Liverpool that, under his leadership, there would be no deal to bring the SNP into government.
The nationalists’ deputy leader at Westminster, Kirsten Oswald, said the Labour chief’s speech showed his party was turning into the Tories, while MP Joanna Cherry said the no-deal commitment boiled down to Starmer saying he wouldn’t respect the wishes of Scots unless they voted for his party.
It shows remarkable audacity for an SNP politician to accuse an opponent of not respecting the wishes of voters. The majority of Scots who voted No in the 2014 independence referendum know all about the nationalists’ refusal to respect their wishes, after all.
What cards does the SNP actually have to play?
SNP politicians who think Labour’s refusal to do a deal with them is a problem for Starmer have not, I’m afraid, thought this one through.
Let’s say Labour comes through as the largest party after the next General Election, but that Starmer fails to win the majority he desires. What cards does the SNP actually have to play?
Sure, the nationalists could offer to support a minority Labour government, so long as Starmer gives them the right to hold a second independence referendum. But, when he said no, as he would, what would be the SNP’s next move?
Would Nicola Sturgeon really decide that she’d like to scupper a potential Labour government and risk allowing the Tories back in? Would she really want to create such chaos that no workable government could be established, forcing the country into another election campaign?
This sort of thing might play with the SNP’s devotees, but would moderate mainstream Scottish voters get on board?
Nobody who has paid the slightest attention to the chaos in UK politics thinks that Starmer is no different to Liz Truss
During the 2014 referendum campaign, the nats characterised Scottish Labour as nothing more than “red Tories”. That was nonsense then, and it’s nonsense now.
Nobody who has paid the slightest attention to the chaos in UK politics thinks that Starmer is no different to Liz Truss. Nobody serious, anyway.
If the SNP holds the balance of power after the next election and it acts in such a way as to allow the Tories to cling onto leadership, it will pay a heavy price.
Euan McColm is a regular columnist for various Scottish newspapers
Conversation