STEPHEN Flynn has sparked debate within the SNP after announcing a bid to stand for the Scottish parliament – without resigning his seat at Westminster.

In a column for the Press and Journal on Tuesday, Flynn laid out his intention to both replace Audrey Nicoll as the MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine and stay on as the MP for Aberdeen South.

The news has led to “disappointment” from some within the SNP, and questions about how the party’s rules would allow that to happen.

What have the SNP’s rules been on ‘dual mandates’?

Ahead of the last Holyrood elections in 2021, the SNP’s National Executive Committee brought in a rule which said that any MP hoping to stand for the Scottish Parliament would need to resign their Westminster seat.

The rule was widely seen as a bid to block Joanna Cherry from standing in Edinburgh Central, the area Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson now represents.

Cherry said that resigning from Westminster would involve closing her constituency office and making staff redundant, and chose not to run for the Scottish parliament.

Neil Gray, at the time the MP for Airdrie and Shotts, did resign his Westminster seat. He then became an MSP – and later Health Secretary.

What have the SNP and its leaders said about dual mandates?

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon previously defended the effective ban on dual mandates for SNP MPs (Image: Gordon Terris/NQ) At the time the dual mandate rule was brought in, then-SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said the “decision the NEC took … was not about barring a Westminster MP standing for Holyrood, but saying that if you were selected as a Holyrood candidate then in enough time before the election, you have to demit your Westminster seat in order to allow the by-election to be on the same day as the Holyrood election”.

She added: “The NEC, I think, wanted to guard against the possibility of lots of Westminster MPs deciding to stand and then creating a whole slew of by-elections.”

Also at the time, an SNP spokesperson said: "The National Executive Committee backed an approach that will guarantee constituents a full-time commitment from day one, and minimise the disruption to voters."

In July of this year, the current SNP leader John Swinney said that he would be open to changing the rule.

"If the party wants to look at its rules, the party is free to look at its rules. I’m very keen to engage with my party membership on these questions,” the First Minister said.

Will the SNP change the rule requiring an MP to resign before running for Holyrood?

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn (Image: PA) Stephen Flynn said it was his understanding that the rule was “election specific” and would not apply after the 2021 vote.

Joanna Cherry has said she expects that the SNP’s NEC will decide not to re-impose the rule blocking MPs from standing to become MSPs for the 2026 Holyrood election.

The SNP’s official position is that the NEC decides on the rules governing each campaign ahead of that campaign, meaning that there is currently no requirement for MPs to quit Westminster if they want to run for Holyrood.

The NEC did not decide on the rules affecting the 2021 election until late in 2020, suggesting any decision for 2026 may not come until late next year.

There have been suggestions that Flynn’s announcement is a bid to pressure the NEC to refrain from forcing him to resign as an MP in order to stand for Holyrood.

Have SNP politicians held dual mandates before – and what have the party said about them?

Former SNP leader Alex Salmond twice held a seat in both Westminster and Holyrood, between 1999-2001 and 2007-2010. Current First Minister John Swinney was also an MP and MSP from 1999-2001.

However, in more recent years the party have been strongly critical of the idea that a politician could be both an MP and MSP – not least in the context of former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who sat in both parliaments from 2021-2024.

As an example, an SNP spokesperson said in 2021: "Douglas Ross clearly has no confidence he will win in Moray, which is why he's hedging his bets by keeping his job as an MP and standing to be an MSP.

READ MORE: SNP politicians call for Stephen Flynn to 'rethink' bid to be both MP and MSP

"Any MP or MSP will tell you that their caseload has gone through the roof recently as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Douglas Ross and his ambitions to hold four jobs – MP, MSP, party leader and an SFA linesman – only serves to let down the people of Moray who need strong representation in both parliaments."

And SNP minister Richard Lochhead said around the same time: “The days of dual mandates should be consigned to history.

"The Scottish Parliament has more powers than before and has much to do to help Scotland recover from a pandemic and fall out from Brexit. Being an MSP is already a demanding full-time job – never mind being a party leader at the same time – and so is being an MP.”