John Swinney may be nearing the point where he blocks Nicola Sturgeon's number. As her loyal deputy for almost nine years, he stood by her through the conflict with Alex Salmond and the Covid pandemic without complaint. In return, he might expect the same loyalty from his former boss. Instead, Sturgeon has used a new foreword to her memoirs to take aim at her successor.
Election campaign criticism
Despite Swinney winning the Holyrood election in May, Sturgeon directed several darts his way. She claimed the SNP's pitch to voters lacked "vision or big-picture thinking" and said the wider campaign was "detached from the big issues bearing down on people's lives". She also appeared to caution Swinney against reversing her sceptical position on new oil and gas drilling. Pointing to the rise of the Scottish Greens, she said it would be a "massive electoral blunder" to row back on the SNP's environmentalism.
A party in decline
No one can credibly deny that the SNP has gone backwards in recent years. At the 2021 Holyrood election, Sturgeon won nearly 1.3 million votes in the constituencies; Swinney's total came in at fewer than 900,000. Like other mainstream parties, the SNP is declining, though at a slower pace than its traditional rivals. Where Swinney has a right to feel aggrieved is Sturgeon's lack of self-awareness over the reasons for this decline.
Several SNP sources said culpability for the party's downward trajectory rests with Sturgeon, not Swinney. In her final years, she became bogged down in niche issues such as gender recognition reform and pardoning witches. She needlessly annoyed voters and fanned the flames of constitutional division at every opportunity. Even she admitted during her resignation speech in 2023 that she was holding back her party and the wider cause.
Fallout from the embezzlement scandal
Another ingredient of the SNP's decline has been the soap opera of her thieving husband being jailed for embezzling party funds. Sturgeon was not charged and police later confirmed she was no longer a suspect; decisions by criminal justice should be respected. But Murrell's embezzlement took place while she was SNP leader, and she should have ensured the party's financial controls were watertight. The reality is that the SNP's systems were weak and Murrell pounced. Swinney has since overhauled the sloppy governance he inherited, but he has paid a price for Sturgeon's poor record as leader.
In her foreword, Sturgeon spoke about how her estranged spouse's actions affected her, accusing him of exposing her to "suspicion, humiliation and vilification" over his crimes. An apology to SNP members for what happened on her watch does not appear to be forthcoming - a stubbornness that will further antagonise voters.
A pattern of criticism
Sturgeon's jibes at Swinney are not the first time she has offered negative commentary on her former deputy. After the SNP's general election drubbing in 2024 - a result Sturgeon should own - she blamed Swinney's apparent lack of focus on independence. One party insider says the SNP's interests would be served by figures from the past moving on.
That includes Sturgeon staying quiet on politics while enjoying her new life in London. Swinney is a forgiving man, known for his patience with colleagues who sound off. But even he must be growing exasperated at the criticisms of an irritating back-seat driver.
