Ex-MPs give verdict on what must be debated at SNP election review

Tommy Sheppard, who lost in Edinburgh East at the General Election, has insisted the party is not spelling out well enough why the Scottish Government cannot do all it wishes to because it does not have the full ability to raise its own finances.

He said getting this across better in the party’s messaging should be a key point of discussion at an internal election review – led by party leader John Swinney - which has been placed at the top of this month’s SNP conference agenda.

Some party members had previously expressed concern the draft agenda for the event at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre – running from August 30 to September 1 – did not include a reflection on the party’s poor results, which saw the number of SNP MPs dramatically reduced from 47 to nine.

Asked what he felt needed to come out of the review at the end of the month, Sheppard told the Sunday National: “The biggest thing is we need to explain [to people] why Scotland should be an independent country.

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“We need to max out the powers of devolution and then explain what we cannot do under the devolved settlement because the argument for independence becomes compelling when the power of devolution is exhausted.

“That is when people are most receptive when you say ‘well that is all we can do because of X and the constraints that are upon us’ and ‘if we were an independent country, we could do more’.

“We need to explain what we’re doing in the Scottish Government and how that relates to Scotland becoming independent. We’ve lost that connection and therefore we are unfairly getting the blame for a number of aspects.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there is room for improvement in service delivery but there are things not being delivered because we are not an independent country that can raise our own finances and that is an inalienable truth we need to keep repeating.”

Explaining realities of politics

EX-SNP MP Hannah Bardell (below), who also lost the Livingston seat for the party in July, added that the party does not do enough explaining to people what the Scottish Government is up against and needs to look at how it can better support members on the “front line” with messaging.

“The main thing for me is how well or not we got our message across that we’re protecting people in Scotland, and Labour are not necessarily the change folk think they are,” she said when asked about the election review.

“We need to talk seriously about how we message and campaign when so many of these things are out of our control.

“I don’t know that we do enough explaining to people why we do what we do when we are governing and equally what more we can do for them in government.  

“We need to think about how we support our own members because they are on the front line of stuff, and they’ve got to answer for us, so we need to listen [to them].”

Bardell added there needs to be a discussion about the disillusionment with politics that came to define the election and how the SNP can work to tackle that.

Turnout in Scotland stood at a measly 59%, down almost 10% from 2019.

“The support for independence is there but people were on the one hand, disillusioned by UK politics, but also not motivated to come out for us and I think we suffered a lot from the disillusionment,” Bardell said.

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“We need to explain to people what we’re up against and that is people hate politicians.

“Part of that is [because] people don’t understand it [politics]. All this Punch and Judy stuff at PMQs and the odd media interview doesn’t tell the full story of what being a politician is like.

“It’s not just about pushing a particular viewpoint, it’s about educating people about the realities of politics. There is not enough of that across the board.”

What the boss thinks

THE SNP got 30% of the vote share in the election, down 15% from 2019, while Labour enjoyed a surge in their vote share of almost 17%.

Stephen Gethins (below), who won the new Arbroath and Broughty Ferry seat for the SNP, said it is important the SNP don’t “lose the plot” on the back of the result, given the skewed picture the first-past-the-post system creates.

Labour won 37 seats in Scotland on the back of just 35% of the vote, while the SNP returned just nine MPs from 30% of the vote. The LibDems, meanwhile, increased their MPs to six on less than 10% of the vote.

(Image: NQ)

However, Gethins said the election review at conference should involve a hard look at data and why people did not vote for the party and instead either stayed at home or switched to Labour.

He also stressed the importance of keeping up with speaking to people on the doorsteps outside of elections.

The former international relations professor said: “There’s a temptation sometimes in political parties to talk to ourselves in terms of what drives us. We shouldn’t be interested in that, we should be interested in what drives the electorate.

“Sometimes there’s a temptation to reflect on what’s important to your core vote but you need to reflect beyond that.

“Sitting back and reflecting your own prejudices of the outcome is not enough. You have to think more broadly than that and that’s where data is not unhelpful – looking at people’s priorities, why people voted Labour but didn’t vote SNP.

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“There’s a path to victory for the SNP in 2026 [Holyrood elections] but it requires a good hard look about what went wrong. It requires shoe leather in terms of going out and speaking to people [using] some of the old-fashioned methods like door-knocking.

“But we shouldn’t lose the plot entirely.”

‘No silver bullet’

PUTTING those prejudices aside and treading a balance between “tearing lumps out of each other” and doing nothing about the result will be key, Sheppard believes, to ensuring the party proceeds on an upward trajectory.

Sheppard said: “We need to tread a balance between on the one hand engaging in divisive internal arguments where we tear lumps out of each other, and on the other, just saying nothing at all and hoping the pendulum will swing back next cycle.

“There’s a middle line there where we can have a robust debate where nothing ought to be off the table.

“There are limitations of what we can decide at this conference but I think this conference is about agreeing a need for a reset. A reset in terms of policy, independence strategy and party organisation.

“We need to understand why we lost half a million votes and there’s no silver bullet here. There’s a complex matrix of reasons so we need to analyse and decipher it and try and tackle a number of things simultaneously.”

Gethins urged party members, activists and politicians attending the review not to go in “chasing simple solutions”.

He said: “There is no silver bullet. People will suggest what they think is one but there isn’t one.

“People in electorates are complex with lots of different reasons for voting the way they did and taking the time to understand that and understanding there is no simple solution is important. Sometimes we chase simple solutions, there are none.”

The SNP have been contacted for comment.