Stephen Flynn: Reform can learn from the SNP |
Stephen Flynn’s Westminster group may consist of only nine MPs, but the SNP has still managed to make its mark in London. Flynn’s performance in Prime Minister’s Questions – when his group get a question – has marked him out as a savvy political operator and earned him grudging respect from politicians from all sides of the Chamber. The SNP has used parliamentary procedure to pile pressure on Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government – the Gaza vote last year, for example, saw the PM suspend six politicians, one of whom has now gone on to form her own new party. Ahead of an election year in Scotland, the SNP has also highlighted Labour’s weaknesses (on issues like new oil and gas licenses, of which Flynn is in favour) north of the border.
Last year’s general election decimated the SNP group in Westminster. The exit poll suggested the Nats could be left with just 10 MPs after years of holding most of Scotland’s Westminster seats – and the real result was worse still. It’s something that remains a sore point for the party, and Flynn as its leader. ‘The initial fallout was bleak,’ he tells me on The Spectator’s Coffee House Shots podcast. The group’s budget was cut drastically – and it left the group with tough choices when it came to jobs. ‘I had to do a lot of redundancies shortly after the election,’ Flynn says, ‘which for staff who helped all of us to such a great degree in the run up to the election… that was pretty tough. It was pretty brutal.’
Flynn has earned himself a reputation for ruthlessness
Once the third largest party in the Commons, Flynn’s group has been forced back in the Chamber, to benches........