WILL THE SNP DREAM TURN INTO A NIGHTMARE ON POLLING DAY?

NICOLA Sturgeon’s reign as the all-conquering Queen of Scotland is showing signs of crumbling at last. A vicious clan feud long simmering in her Scottish National Party exploded into the open this week.

At Westminster, her ally Ian Blackford sacked his home affairs spokeswoman Joanna Cherry from his frontbench team. She has been accused by some within the SNP of plotting a leadership challenge to oust Ms Sturgeon.

Ms Cherry’s sacking triggered angry exchanges from rival SNP factions and a deluge of vile abuse directed towards her on social media. Now the fallout is threatening to undermine the party’s campaign for the Scottish Parliament elections, due in May. Such brutal public feuding is unusual in a party that has a reputation as one of the most disciplined forces in UK politics for decades.

The single-minded devotion to the dream of an independent Scotland has long united disparate clans, ranging from the “Tartan Tories” to the hard-Left socialists that make up the SNP grassroots.

But in recent years a gulf has emerged between fans of Ms Sturgeon and the supporters of her abrasive predecessor Alex Salmond, who are impatient for an even more confrontational approach.

Ms Sturgeon has radiated an aura of calm reassurance in leading the Scottish Government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. She has deftly used her media platform to dominate the Scottish political scene over the last year as the elections loom.

And she has repeatedly forecast that her party will secure a landslide triumph at the polls as a launch pad for her campaign for a rerun of the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence.

Yet divided parties often struggle to convince voters they are up to the job of governing. If the SNP civil war continues publicly, Ms Sturgeon’s boasting about victory could look pretty hubristic by polling day.