The SNP has descended into a fresh bout of infighting after John Swinney appeared to accept the disastrous election result had wiped out its mandate for an independence referendum.
After the Nationalists recorded their worst electoral performance for 14 years, recriminations erupted among senior figures including Nicola Sturgeon who pinned some of the blame on the present leadership for mixed messaging on independence during the campaign.
In a calamitous night for the SNP in which its grip over Scottish politics weakened, John Swinney, its leader, admitted he had “failed to convince people of the urgency of independence in this election campaign”.
The SNP had said a majority of Westminster seats north of the border would be a mandate for negotiations with the new government on holding another referendum. Instead the party lost 38 MPs and returned nine, with one constituency still to conclude counting.
Scottish Labour is now the largest party, with 37 seats, an extraordinary resurgence from 2019 when it returned one MP.
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Sturgeon accepted some responsibility for the SNP’s collapse but criticised the campaign strategy. “I think for anybody in the current leadership to sort of take refuge in somehow it’s all my fault … would just be taking the easy solution or response to this, rather than looking seriously and hard at what the real issues are,” she told ITV, where she was working as an election commentator.
She said that the SNP “left themselves between two stools on the independence question”, adding that placing the constitution on the front page of the party’s manifesto “was never followed through on a sort of day-to-day basis in the campaign”.
Sturgeon loyalists privately questioned the former party leader’s decision to criticise Swinney, who is a close friend and served as her deputy first minister.
A backlash also grew against Sturgeon within the SNP amid concerns about the party’s previous focus on issues such as gender reforms as the cost of living crisis began to bite.
“This has been a long time coming,” said a senior party source. “This is about wrong priorities decided under Nicola. Humza [Yousaf, her successor as first minister] was a catastrophe and there are tough choices ahead.”
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• The results in maps and charts
Joanna Cherry, the outgoing SNP MP, also criticised Sturgeon for “squandering” chances to achieve Scottish independence.
The high-profile rebel, who was defeated by Labour in Edinburgh South West despite defending a 12,000 majority, said the party had lost its reputation for “integrity and delivering a competent government” which had contributed to a poor general election result.
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Cherry said she was dismayed to hear Sturgeon talking about the party in the third person “as if she has nothing to do with it and not taking any responsibility for what’s happened to the party tonight”.
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Separately, she said the SNP must move away from identity politics such as transgender rights.
Tommy Sheppard, who lost to Labour in Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, said the SNP had “lost its way for a period” and “fought amongst itself when it should have been fighting a common enemy”, which contributed to the haemorrhaging of seats.
Swinney admitted on Friday that he had “failed to convince people of the urgency of independence in this election campaign”, adding: “Therefore, we need to take the time to consider and to reflect on how we deliver our commitment to independence, which remains absolute.”
The SNP had said a majority of Westminster seats north of the border would be a mandate for negotiations with the new government on holding another referendum.
Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, who held on to his seat against a surge by both Labour and the Tories, admitted the case for independence was a “hard sell right now” and demanded that his party be “bold in our action” and change course.
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“We are experiencing something that we have not experienced for quite some time,” he said as the scale of his party’s losses became apparent. “We are going to be beat in Scotland, we are going to be beat well. So now is the time that we must learn and we must listen.”
Allies of Swinney believe the fact that, in contrast to much of the cabinet and other senior nationalist parliamentarians, he has experienced defeat as a senior politician will be vital for the SNP as it seeks to recover.
One source said the party needed to “genuinely reflect” on the result but not “lose the plot” given it won 30 per cent of the vote compared with Labour’s 34 per cent.
“A deep dive is needed, not listening to the siren voices of simple solutions,” they said.
Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader who now leads the pro-independence Alba Party, said: “The slaughter of the SNP is not because of independence. How could it be? The SNP did not even campaign on it. In reality the support for independence is strong. It is the SNP who are weak.”
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Geoff Aberdein, who was Salmond’s chief of staff but still supports the SNP, said Sturgeon should “carry the can for a significant portion of where we are tonight”.
