Politics is a brutal business. Its most successful practitioners require a degree of ruthlessness we would find disturbing in a friend.
A truly effective political leader must not only cultivate a network of supportive allies, he or she must be willing to cut dead anyone who threatens their project.
Among former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s professional gifts was a ruthlessness that saw her dispense quickly with any colleagues who risked becoming a liability. A number of elected members at both Holyrood and Westminster enjoyed the patronage of Sturgeon, posing with her for grinning selfies, only to find themselves sharply shut out when things got difficult.
The MP turned MSP Michelle Thomson was suspended by the SNP when difficult questions arose about her property portfolio. The former MSP Mark McDonald became a pariah when it emerged he’d sent some inappropriate text messages.
In these and other cases, there was no police involvement. The merest whiff that something wasn’t right was enough to merit enforced exile.
I mean no criticism, here. Sturgeon did what she thought necessary to protect her party. That’s a fundamental duty of a leader.
If, during the Sturgeon era, two high-profile SNP figures had been arrested as part of a police investigation, she would have seen to it that they were suspended from the party until those matters were cleared up.
Little more than three weeks after succeeding Sturgeon, new leader Humza Yousaf faces calls from opponents – and some colleagues – to suspend former chief executive Peter Murrell and MSP Colin Beattie from the SNP, after both were arrested by police investigating allegations of fraud involving party funds. He refuses to do so.
This, I suppose, is understandable. Murrell is, after all, Mr Nicola Sturgeon. Of course, Yousaf is wary of crossing that line.
If he suspends Murrell and then Sturgeon is interviewed by cops, logically, he’d have to suspend her, too. I’m afraid this is a clear-cut case of “so be it”.
Yousaf seems genuinely shell-shocked
The extraordinary crisis engulfing the SNP stems from the culture of the Sturgeon and Murrell era. Yousaf’s instincts may be to stand by his friends, but that would be an indulgence.
The new first minister campaigned in the SNP leadership contest as his party’s continuity candidate. That status may have helped him to a slender victory, but it now hangs around his neck, a 10-tonne chain that threatens to drag him to his political doom.
In recent days, Yousaf has given the firm impression that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He seems genuinely shell-shocked by each damaging new revelation about his party.
If he’s to salvage his leadership, Humza Yousaf needs to cut his old friends adrift. That’s what Nicola Sturgeon would have done.
Euan McColm is a regular columnist for various Scottish newspapers
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