The SNP may just have found its saviour

The row with the Speaker has given the Nationalists both an effective new cause and a possible leader

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle may not have realised it yet, but the mistakes which resulted in the scenes of chaos at Westminster on Wednesday may well have delivered a much-needed boost to those who want to break up Britain.

Those farcical events introduced a new politician to the British public. Stephen Flynn, the 35 year-old MP for Aberdeen South and leader of the SNP’S 43 Westminster MPS for 14 months, delivered a stinging rebuke to both Sir Lindsay and to British democracy for denying his party the right to a fair hearing in a controversial debate over the crisis in Gaza.

Political parties normally need two qualities above all if they are to succeed. The first is a cause, an issue they can “sell” to the public to win support in elections.

The second is ancillary but is often just as important. That is leadership. Good causes die a slow death if they are not espoused by men or women who have the ability and personality to persuade an often suspicious electorate.

A decent cause and first class leadership, then, are absolute essentials. Have the SNP just found both?

There is no doubt that the Speaker-induced scenes of near-mayhem in the Commons, which besmirched the proud reputation of the Parliament, gave a welcome leg up to the Scottish National Party and its aim of taking Scotland out of the United Kingdom.

It has seldom had such a filip and certainly not in the House of Commons, where its MPS intend to sit for only as long as it takes them to win a new independence referendum and leave Westminster forever.

Nobody should therefore be surprised that the Nats are using the issue as a cause with which to beat not just Speaker Hoyle but also the British state and its hitherto proud system of democracy.

“British politics at its lowest”, screamed The National, Scotland’s sole pro-independence newspaper, on its front page. And a nationalist MP claimed that any SNP motion could now be “swept aside at the Speaker’s behest if … Labour … ask him to”.

They insist that their controversial Commons motion, which called for an immediate ceasefire and condemned Israel’s tactics in attacking Gaza, was stymied thanks to what they reckon was a backstairs dirty deal between Sir Lindsay and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Both men deny the charge, but an even wider belief among SNP and Tory MPS is that Sir Keir’s actions were prompted by fears that a large number of his MPS and shadow cabinet members would have voted for the SNP motion.

The nationalists reckon they have a valid complaint because the Commons on Wednesday was an Opposition Day, when a minority party, such as the SNP, gets to choose the business.

And in an angry but restrained tirade, following Sir Lindsay’s change in the order of business, Flynn made himself known to a wider audience by demanding “Where on earth is the Speaker?” Yesterday he insisted that neither he nor his colleagues had confidence in Sir Lindsay’s ability to continue in his role – a declaration that this relatively novice MP then made, privately and directly, to the Speaker. His behaviour won admirers across the political spectrum in decrying a system that, he said, stopped his party from voting “on a matter which is of grave concern to us”.

There is nothing of the “snake oil salesman” in Flynn’s public persona. Rather he exhibits an abrasive image that came in handy when he faced off against former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s opposition to his bid to unseat Ian Blackford, the previous Westminster SNP leader.

A football fan – he supports Dundee United – he’s quickly learnt the ropes at Prime Minister’s Question Time, asking short sharp questions, and is seen as an efficient party leader. His attacks on the Speaker will have reinforced the Westminster belief that this is a furiously ambitious operator whose eyes are set firmly on winning overall leadership of his party and, ultimately becoming Scotland’s first minister.

Given the poor performance of Humza Yousaf as Sturgeon’s successor, there are few in the nationalist ranks who would bet against Flynn. At the moment, his cause – independence – is slipping in the polls. However, Flynn may yet strike a serious blow to the UK establishment by helping to remove the Commons Speaker.