Deputy contest serves up a surprise
WESTMINSTER politician Stewart Hosie shocked the SNP conference by winning the deputy leadership race in competition with two Holyrood ministers.
Victory for the Treasury spokesman signals the party’s increasing focus on Westminster, with Alex Salmond also eyeing a UK seat.
Angus Robertson MP is currently the SNP leader in Westminster, which raises the prospect of three party heavyweights working in London after May.
His victory also creates another power couple at the top of the party. Mr Hosie’s wife, Shona Robison, is minister for public health and sport – and one of new leader Nicola Sturgeon’s closest friends. Having been shadow health secretary in opposition, she is a strong contender to replace struggling Alex Neil in the high-profile post after a cabinet reshuffle in coming weeks.
That will raise concern among some Nationalists about the increasing concentration of power in a niche circle – Miss Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell i s SNP chief executive.
In the battle to be deputy leader Mr Hosie beat training, youth and women’s employment secretary Angela Constance and transport minister Keith Brown, who had been favourite to win the post and was seen as the preferred choice of MSPs in Holyrood.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Hosie said: ‘The referendum was no more than – and no less than – an act of self-determination. We did not win but we came close. ‘That was not divisive, that was democracy, and for Scotland there is no going back. ‘What we need to do – all 85,000 of us, and the wider Yes movement – is keep that campaigning energy together. ‘It will not be a rerun referendum, it will be a chance to hold Westminster’s feet to the fire and make sure they fulfil their prom
ise, the pledge, the vow.’