It’s so difficult to follow the rules, don’t you think?
Like me, perhaps you thought – given how loudly it has complained about the practice over recent years – the SNP was firmly opposed to the idea of politicians serving in both the UK and Scottish Parliaments at the same time.
Now, it turns out, this sort of thing might be acceptable after all.
The nationalists’ Westminster leader Stephen Flynn – currently MP for Aberdeen South – intends to stand for election to Holyrood in 2026 and, if elected, plans to hold a dual mandate.
This is hardly unprecedented. Throughout the history of the Scottish Parliament, a number of senior figures – including John Swinney and Alex Salmond – have served in both parliaments at the same time.
A change of party rules in 2021 appeared to put an end to that possibility.
The SNP announced that any MP seeking selection as a candidate for that year’s Holyrood election would first have to resign their seat in the House of Commons.
This new measure was spun as evidence that the SNP expected 100 per cent commitment from its politicians. Nationalists MSPs wagged their fingers in the direction of former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who was elected to Holyrood in 2021 but retained his Westminster seat until this year.
The ban on dual mandates was designed to block ambitions of Joanna Cherry
But the truth is that the ban on dual mandates was designed not to improve the service received by constituents but to block the ambitions of former SNP politician, Joanna Cherry.
Cherry – who served as MP for Edinburgh South West between 2015-24 – had planned to seek the nomination for the Holyrood constituency of Edinburgh Central in 2021 but then SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, preferred August Robertson as a candidate and the rule banning dual mandates was announced.
Now the party is to “consult” on that decision, opening to door to the possibility of Flynn’s election to the Scottish Parliament.
Reaction from colleagues to the MP’s announcement – which will see him challenge sitting MSP Audrey Nicoll for the SNP nomination in Aberdeen South and North Kincardine – has been mixed.
Nationalist Highlands and Islands MSP Emma Roddick said she hopes Flynn will reconsider his decision while Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes insisted he would be a “brilliant asset” to Holyrood.
Flynn is, without question, one of the SNP’s most capable politicians. A decent parliamentary performer with a sense of humour, he is often talked about as a potential future party leader. However, his decision to challenge a sitting MSP for a Holyrood candidacy has, to put it mildly, ruffled nationalist feathers.
Flynn ‘wants to end the career of Audrey Nicoll’
One SNP MSP told me “Stephen’s clever and capable but there’s no escaping the fact he wants to end the career of a colleague and people don’t always love that kind of thing.”
One politician who knows that, fine and well, is Douglas Ross.
In June of this year, just weeks before the General Election, Ross announced his decision to stand for election to the Westminster constituency of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East.
Ross’s announcement came a day after David Duguid, who had been Tory MP for the predecessor seat of Banff and Buchan was deselected while in hospital.
The backlash against Ross was fierce. Duguid might have been an obscure figure in Tory politics but colleagues believed he had been treated appallingly and Ross found himself isolated within the parliamentary group he led.
Audrey Nicoll has confirmed that she, too, is bidding to win selection as a Holyrood candidate.
Nicoll’s statement – “I love this role and it’s very important to me. It’s filled with responsibility and I look forward to continuing it if I can” – was rather meek.
One nationalist MSP told me: “Audrey is a decent woman but Stephen is a bruiser. If she doesn’t stand up for herself, there’s every chance he’ll wipe the floor with her.”
But others in the SNP are less certain. A former nationalist MP reportedly told BBC Scotland News “I’m not sure being seen to do Audrey Nicoll out of her job so that he can have two jobs is a smart pitch”, while another senior party figure described Flynn’s move as “naked ambition”.
Flynn says he wants to be part of First Minister John Swinney’s team at Holyrood.
Were I Swinney, I’d shudder at the prospect. Flynn is a fiercely ambitious politician who previously toppled Ian Blackford as the SNP’s Westminster leader and is now bent on ending the political career of Audrey Nicoll.
I’ll be astonished if Stephen Flynn’s ambitions stop short of becoming the SNP’s next leader.
Euan McColm is a regular columnist for various Scottish newspapers
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