The winner of the bruising contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister will have to “swallow their pride” and form a government with each other to heal wounds, says a former SNP spin doctor.
Fergus Mutch gives his assessment of the uphill struggle for the next SNP leader – and his personal reflections on Nicola Sturgeon – in an interview with The Stooshie, the politics podcast from DC Thomson.
Mr Mutch, who stood twice for the SNP in Aberdeenshire and was an aide to Alex Salmond, also gives his thoughts on the future of the SNP-Green agreement in government.
On Monday March 27, either Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes or Ash Regan will be named the next leader of the party and, later in the week, become Scotland’s next first minister.
Listen to The Stooshie podcast
In the latest episode of The Stooshie, available here, Mr Mutch says:
- The leadership race has not been the SNP’s “finest hour”.
- Kate Forbes has a “slight edge” as the best candidate.
- There is “reasonable criticism” about Ms Sturgeon delivering her policy agenda.
- Ms Sturgeon’s “cautious” character may have held her back from seizing opportunities.
- The future shape of the SNP-Green government deal is uncertain.
Mr Mutch says: “It’s not necessarily going to be an easy task, particularly when such clear battlelines have been drawn over the course of the campaign in policy, on ideology, on the future of the party, how the party should be administered, how its HQ should function.
“If I were in their shoes – which I’m very glad not to be – it’s about being commensurate, being pretty broad church about how you take the party forward.”
On future working arrangements, he adds: “If I was Humza Yousaf, I’d most certainly find a senior position for Kate Forbes within my cabinet.
“Likewise with Kate Forbes, I would find a very senior position for Humza and try and unite those strands of the party.
“It’s actually a tactic that Alex Salmond historically was very good at doing.
“The people who he put in his shadow cabinet and who ultimately came into his government cabinet in 2007 were not people who were fulsome supporters of him and Nicola’s joint ticket to win the SNP leadership after 2004.
“You need to swallow your pride at times, let bygones be bygones, the harsh words that were uttered during a bruising campaign set to one side and get on with the job of governing.”
‘Reset’ with Greens
He admits to having “never been the biggest fan” of the SNP’s deal with the Greens which “allows them quite a lot of the trappings and the benefits of being in government without much of the accountability”.
Those comments come as the Greens prepared to meet for their party conference in Clydebank on Saturday, where the power-sharing deal formed in 2021 is likely to be discussed.
What was it like to work with Nicola Sturgeon?
Working closely with Ms Sturgeon opened Mr Mutch’s eyes to “just how capable, just how detailed, driven, how remarkable a politician she really is”.
He points to her leadership during one of the most turbulent times in UK politics, through a Brexit referendum, snap general elections, and political ups and downs.
“Events conspired against her at times but people will debate whether she seized her opportunities when she had the chance”, he told the podcast.
“That speaks to another side of Nicola the person. There’s a real cautious element there too.
“A lot of politicians can be pretty gun ho because they believe utterly in their own hype.
“Nicola Sturgeon was quite the opposite.”