Reining in ‘one-trick pony’ may force First Minister to hold her horses

Nicola Sturgeon’s authority in her party has all but vanished with the demise of Ian Blackford as SNP leader in the House of Commons. His decision to stand down may be a humiliation for this self-styled “Humble Crofter”, who’s actually a well-heeled former banker, but it is also a killer blow for Scotland’s First Minister. In an open rebellion, she had tried to keep Blackford in the post, most probably to save her own skin, but most of her 44 MPS at Westminster said they’d no longer take orders from her. They were infuriated when she stamped down hard on previous attempts to get rid of Blackford.

He was told that there was a majority of nationalist MPS who wanted him out and he decided to go immediately, with one veteran nationalist declaring: “Sturgeon won’t be happy that he’s gone. This means that she might be next.”

His departure is the culmination of a running battle between the party in London and SNP headquarters in Edinburgh, which is said to be run by a Sturgeon “cabal”, comprising the First Minister, her husband, who is also the party’s chief executive, and two advisers. MPS complain that their views are either ignored or discounted when key policy decisions are taken and that Blackford is said to be all too ready to accept orders from Sturgeon.

Instead of being an effective opposition, as the Commons third biggest party, the SNP group evolved into a seething mass of malcontents who, said other MPS, spend too much time plotting in Westminster’s bars and restaurants principally because they had nothing to do as all Scottish domestic legislation had been devolved to Holyrood.

Much of their plotting centred on Blackford, who was said to be “a one-trick pony”, which is a bit unfair given that the SNP only has one trick – independence.

More seriously in nationalist eyes, is the claim that he enjoys the House too much because he’s always called after Labour but before the Lib Dems, making him a regular, if not exactly popular, fixture in TV coverage of Prime Minister’s Question Time.

The more Blackford enjoyed the limelight and all the TV appearances that came with being leader, the more truculent became his supposed followers. Although no longer leader, Blackford intends to remain an MP and has agreed to accept Sturgeon’s offer to encourage business leaders to support independence … an extremely tall order.

The move sounds very like a rerun of Labour’s failed “Prawn Cocktail Offensive”, staged in the run-up to the 1992 election.

As Michael Heseltine joked about that effort which resulted in a Labour defeat: “Never before have so many crustaceans died in vain.”