The first fingers of a bright dawn are inching out across the north east of Scotland, seeming to herald the arrival of the new political age. It’s 6am and Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, is leaving Aberdeen’s cavernous P&J conference arena to conduct a mini-tour of the broadcasters. It’s his last chore of a punishing shift that had started 27 hours earlier.
It’s only now perhaps that the full extent of the apocalypse that’s laid waste to his party has begun to sink in. Though he’s always been unfailingly polite to me – warm even – I approach him warily for there is a question that still needs to be asked. “Stephen, do you think it’s now time for a change of leadership in the party?”
I suppose I’d hoped that, wearied by the excursions and alarums of the day, he might venture something startling but he sticks to the script. “Absolutely not,” he says. “There’s not a chance of that. We’ve got a ton of work to do. It’s time for us to reflect on what the electorate has told us and to have an open, frank and honest internal discussion within the party.”
SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn (second left), and SNP's Kirsty Blackman (second right), after being declared the winners of the Aberdeen South and Aberdeen North constituencies respectively at P&J Live arena in Aberdeen (Image: free)
He must know though, that the question won’t go away. The party was expected to lose a significant number of its Westminster seats but not this many. Thursday’s loss of 39 seats was a disaster for the SNP.
Even if Mr Flynn really does think John Swinney should remain as leader going into the 2026 Scottish election others, whose lifestyles have been elevated by Holyrood’s superannuated rewards, might beg to differ.
Those I spoke to inside the P&J Arena after it first became evident that the SNP had experienced an End Times event were unequivocal: if there isn’t a clear-out –........