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How veteran Highland nationalist Fergus Ewing went from SNP royalty to rebel outcast

The long-serving Inverness and Nairn MSP won’t stand for the SNP at the next election - but may run as an independent.

Fergus Ewing looking concerned while looking off camera.
Fergus Ewing won't stand for the SNP next year. Image Sandy McCook/DC Thomson.

Fergus Ewing’s family has been synonymous with the SNP for decades.

His mother Winnie’s stunning Hamilton by-election win in 1967 was a seismic moment for Scottish nationalism.

But Mr Ewing has become one of his party’s fiercest critics in the past four years.

He won’t stand for the SNP in Inverness and Nairn at next year’s Holyrood election – but may run as an independent.

Here’s how one of the party’s leading soldiers became a disillusioned outsider.

‘A bad idea’

Mr Ewing’s frustration with the direction of the SNP had been slowly building for years.

But nothing quite inflamed him like the party’s decision to go into a power-sharing agreement with the Greens after the 2021 election.

The Inverness and Nairn MSP was sent to the backbenches by Nicola Sturgeon at that time and was freed up to air his anger.

Fergus Ewing is the son of SNP trailblazer Winnie Ewing. Image: Sandy McCook/DC Thomson.

“The decision to join the Greens was the wrong decision,” he told The Press and Journal.

“I did speak out in the group meeting in the summer of 2021.

“I was the only person to say directly this was a bad idea.”

Sounding the alarm bell

SNP failures to dual the A9 and A96 are the main reason Mr Ewing won’t stand for the party at the 2026 election.

But there’s a litany of party policies he has disagreed with in the past four years.

The dualling of the A9 is a decade behind the original completion date. Image: Sandy McCook/DC Thomson.

He’s bemoaned the SNP’s shift away from oil and gas, voted against gender reforms, and opposed the ill-fated deposit return scheme.

“Every time I sounded the alarm bell there was a fire, particularly over the deposit return scheme,” he said.

“I knew without a shadow of a doubt it could not work. I suggested specific things to senior people in government, and they didn’t pay a blind bit of attention.

“Now they’re in court getting sued.”

He added: “I thought as a backbencher I might be able to have a word in the ear of John Swinney and other ministers, and they might listen to me.

“How wrong I was.”

‘Moving in the wrong direction’

Mr Ewing says he’s “not bitter” about Ms Sturgeon kicking him out of government in 2021.

He told The Press and Journal his problems with the party had been building even while he remained inside the tent.

“Nicola wanted to choose someone else as her rural minister,” he said.

Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Image: PA.

“When she sacked me, we had a perfectly friendly conversation.

“I did feel the party was moving in the wrong direction.

“That process began the day Alex Salmond stepped down.”

He added: “The first minister led from the front during the Covid pandemic, but she listened to an ever-decreasing circle of advisers.

“My advice was never welcome.”

‘You have to be open’

Mr Ewing said the SNP’s road dualling failures demonstrated a “breach of trust”.

And that gets to the core of why he cannot stand for the party next year.

“If you get something wrong in government, you have to be open about it,” he said.

“People are sick to death. It’s why some people are turning to fringe parties like Reform.

“In politics, if you breach people’s trust, you lose,” he added. “That’s life.”

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