Swinney faces party backlash after scrapping the Minister for Independence
JOHN Swinney is on a collision course with hardline SNP members after his scrapping of the post of independence minister within hours of being handed the keys to Bute House.
The new First Minister is bracing himself for a backlash for axeing the role in his Cabinet reshuffle.
Mr Swinney enjoyed a free run to the leadership after touting himself as a ‘safe pair of hands’ who could reunite the SNP.
But yesterday he faced open dissent from one senior Nationalist for his humiliating removal of Jamie Hepburn from the post, little more than a year after it was created by Humza Yousaf.
Mr Hepburn appeared on BBC Scotland’s Debate Night on Wednesday, dismissing suggestions his job may be abolished. But the prerecorded show was aired just over half-an-hour after the Scottish Government had published its fresh list of ministerial appointments – with the independence portfolio conspicuously absent.
Yesterday, Nationalist MP Alyn Smith, the party’s Europe spokesman at Westminster, publicly questioned Mr Swinney’s judgment.
Speaking on BBC Good Morning Scotland, he said: ‘I’m not privy to John’s thinking on that. I can only speak personally, but my view was that having Jamie Hepburn as the independence minister was really effective.’
Mr Swinney’s coronation as SNP leader and First Minister was made possible only by his meeting with a rebel activist demanding a more aggressive pitch for independence.
Graeme McCormick had enough endorsements to run a rival bid but was persuaded not to stand after receiving
‘Divisive and wasteful post’
personal assurances his concerns would be addressed.
Mr Swinney’s decision plays to his mantra of uniting Scotland and bringing in a new era of collegiate politics. But it risks reigniting the battle within the wider independence movement between gradualists and those who accuse the leadership of going slow on the push for a second referendum. When asked why he had axed the post, Mr Swinney said: ‘The Government is committed to independence and I expect all my ministers to be making the case for independence.’
Alex Salmond’s Alba Party accused Mr Swinney of trying to appease Unionists. General secretary Chris McEleny said: ‘Instead of appealing to Unionists [John Swinney] should be reaching out... to turbo-charge efforts to drive the case for independence.’
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: ‘While it’s welcome that this divisive and wasteful post has been axed, the SNP Government’s obsession with independence needs to go with it – and we know that will never happen.
‘John Swinney has doubled down on the SNP’s separation fixation, as his campaign slogan – uniting for independence – illustrates.’
THE role of Minister for Independence was always the very definition of a costly nonjob – but does its termination signal that less time will be wasted on the SNP’s doomed separatist crusade?
Critics condemned the move, not least because they claim to have had no warning of it – and fear it means separatism is being shifted down the SNP’s list of priorities.
SNP hierarchs, knowing heavy electoral losses are almost certainly on the horizon, may hope getting rid of this pointless sinecure will win the support of those tired of the party’s constitutional fixation.
But very few Scots will seriously believe that it portends a change of tack from a party that has wasted nearly 20 gruelling years pursuing the break-up of Britain.
John Swinney was firmly in self-pitying mode yesterday as he spoke of his party’s ‘traumatic’ experience in recent days.
But the real trauma has been endured by Scotland over 17 years of toxic SNP rule.