PM’s courage set off this downward spiral for the SNP

THE Scottish Nationalists limp from one disaster to another.

Only yesterday, their fragile coalition with the Scottish Greens collapsed, leaving First Minister Humza Yousaf in a perilously weak position as head of a minority administration.

Meanwhile, his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon and her husband Peter Morrell, the SNP’s former chief executive, are embroiled in a major scandal over the party’s finances. Party membership is plummeting, down by half since 2019. Today, the cause of Scottish separatism looks weaker than it has done in decades. And there is one British politician who deserves more credit than any other for this meltdown – and that is the Prime Minister.

It was Rishi Sunak’s bold decision to block the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Recognition Act – which would make it easier for people to change their legal gender – that marked the point when the SNP started to unravel. At the time, he was warned by many in his own party that such a move would be a “gift” to the SNP.

But the Prime Minister bravely stuck to his guns. He was soon vindicated when the Scottish Government’s obsession with trans ideology became utterly discredited by the case of Isla Bryson, a double rapist sent to a women’s prison. Amid public outrage, Ms Sturgeon was forced out, and the SNP has been in free fall ever since.