SNP told to rerun poll after Sturgeon’s husband ousted
Party’s chief executive forced to quit as he admits misleading MSPs and the public over leadership race
THE SNP is facing demands to restart its leadership contest after Nicola Sturgeon’s husband quit as chief executive and admitted he had misled party members and the Scottish public about the size of the electorate.
Peter Murrell, who has run the SNP for almost 25 years, was dramatically ousted yesterday amid unprecedented turmoil in Scotland’s ruling party, which came to a head after its senior spin doctor quit in a row over inflated membership figures.
Support drained away from Mr Murrell, including among Sturgeon loyalists, after Murray Foote, a former newspaper editor who was the party’s head of communications and research at Holyrood, resigned on Friday night.
Mr Foote suggested that he had been misled by his own colleagues into formally denying reports that the SNP had suffered a major exodus of members, which later turned out to be accurate.
Mr Murrell, who had been at the helm of the SNP since 1999 and married Ms Sturgeon in 2010, announced his immediate resignation yesterday and said he accepted blame for the fiasco.
He quit after members of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee warned him to either announce his departure or face a humiliating vote of no confidence.
Sources close to Ash Regan, one of the three contenders vying for the leadership, demanded that existing ballot papers are discarded and the contest restarted, in light of the turmoil.
There have repeatedly been claims that under Mr Murrell’s leadership, the party machine has been working to elect Humza Yousaf, the self-declared “continuity candidate” who has vowed to protect Ms Sturgeon’s legacy. Ms Regan’s campaign has already floated the prospect of a legal challenge to have the contest halted.
“The ballot needs to be rerun,” a source close to Ms Regan said. “If members knew what they know now would they have voted the same way? My suspicion is that for many, the answer is no. They are entitled to reconsider now that they have more information.
“SNP headquarters have lied to the public, the press and to our own members. The head of communications has resigned and the chief executive has been forced out not by the media, but the party’s own ruling committee. If it just goes ahead, any result would be completely discredited. If there is not a rerun and Humza wins, his position would become untenable very quickly. I doubt he would even make it to being confirmed as First Minister.”
The source added: “Restarting the ballot would be simple and in everyone’s interests. Lorna Finn [the SNP’s national secretary] could reissue ballots on Monday morning and we wouldn’t even need to extend the deadline.” The SNP had officially denied a report in February that it had recently lost 30,000 activists and has repeatedly briefed journalists since Ms Sturgeon’s departure that it had about 100,000 members.
However, after candidates Ms Regan and Kate Forbes demanded the official total was published and raised concerns about the election process, the SNP reluctantly admitted that only 72,186 people will choose the next party leader and First Minister of Scotland, 31,698 fewer than the last published figure.
Supporters of the women claim the SNP’s decision to mislead members helped Mr Yousaf, as an exodus of tens of thousands of activists would have added weight to their claims that the party needed major reform and weakened his “continuity” pitch.
The true membership figure was published on Thursday, three days after voting opened and once a programme of hustings and live TV debates had finished. Ms Forbes’s camp refused to be drawn on the prospect of a rerun, but is understood to be relaxed about the prospect. Mr Yousaf ’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Michael Russell, SNP president, will replace Mr Murrell on an interim basis.