Senior SNP figures and furious MPs have warned John Swinney’s defence of iPad roaming bill MSP Michael Matheson risks blowing up the party’s general election campaign.
Holyrood’s standards committee ruled Mr Matheson should be banned from Parliament for 27 sitting days for attempting to charge the taxpayer for £11,000 of charges his family racked up while watching football matches on holiday.
At First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Mr Swinney stunned rival MSPs by claiming the investigation had been “prejudiced” by Tory MSP Annie Wells, who previously criticised Matheson’s excuses for the bill.
Mr Swinney said parliament would be brought into disrepute if his SNP colleague and friend is given a lengthy ban.
But in a series of interviews, party insiders revealed how the extraordinary defence left some colleagues stunned and furious.
Explosive on the doorstep
One former minister said Mr Swinney had “scored an own goal of epic proportions” and thrown SNP MPs under the bus with just weeks before the general election.
He said: “I think it will be explosive on the doorstep and a lot of people have mentioned it to me as a reason not to vote for the SNP.
“I think there will be a real backlash against John Swinney’s position on this.
“As far as the public will see it, Michael is the culprit here, not the victim. And they see it as their money he was claiming when he wasn’t justified in doing so.
“On every doorstep, the SNP will be getting pelters because of what John Swinney has said. I think he has blown up the campaign on day one.”
The former SNP minister said he had been stopped multiple times on the street by people who felt John Swinney’s comments were outrageous.
He added: “If I was a Westminster candidate at this election, I would be raging at this stupidity done without any consultation inside the party.
“The SNP MSPs were as shell-shocked to hear this line as everybody else was.
“Nobody knew that was the line he was going to take and a number of people have told me that they’re not only shocked, they’re angry.
“They feel like he has pulled the rug from under our candidates and now people who were thinking about coming back to the SNP, this is going to stop them from doing that.”
MPs watch on in disbelief
One SNP MP told us he watched on in “disbelief” as John Swinney spoke at Holyrood.
He said: “This election is going to be an uphill struggle for us and we’re going to be under huge pressure in a lot of places.
“We relish that though, I’m absolutely up for the fight.
“But what we don’t need is for any dramas going on up the road to distract from the key things we want to be talking to voters about.
“I think the Matheson thing was done without really thinking about how that’s going to look for us when we’re trying to fight for our seats.
“I understand why John Swinney did it but it hasn’t really done us any favours.”
Another senior SNP figure told us they were aware Mr Swinney’s comments had angered a number of the party’s MPs.
He said the SNP is already facing the toughest election since Labour swept to power under Tony Blair in 1997.
He added: “It’s difficult to see how Swinney can turn things around.
“What I detect is that in most seats in Scotland, the contest is between the SNP and another party.
“In all of these seats, I think that while in the opinion polls we’re not doing particularly well, in those two-horse races, we’ll actually do even worse.
“For the first time that I can recall, the SNP will be the victims of tactical voting.”
What does John Swinney say?
Speaking to journalists on Saturday, Mr Swinney defended his decision to challenge the sanction against Mr Matheson.
Asked if Ms Wells’ comments had undermined the entire committee’s decision, he said: “I think when you bring prejudice into a process, you have to recognise the process is damaged as a consequence.”
The SNP Holyrood group said: “The integrity of the standards process for MSPs is of critical importance.
“Parliament is expected to consider this matter this week.”
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