The Scotsman Bulletin Friday May 03 2024 #Politics #TWTWTW

The Scotsman

Scotsman deputy editor Alan Young looks back on the week in Scottish politics with political correspondent Rachel Amery

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:10 >> Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Built-in for Friday.

00:14 It's Friday, it's been a long week.

00:17 It's not quite over yet.

00:18 I'm Alan Young, I am Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and

00:21 joined today by our political correspondent, Rachel Aimery,

00:25 who is no doubt pleased it's almost the end of the week.

00:27 Hi, Rachel.

00:28 >> Good morning.

00:30 >> Dramatic developments again.

00:33 Let's take a look at the front page.

00:35 We splashed today with John Swinney, the man who looks like he is going to be

00:43 the next SNP leader and first minister.

00:47 This could happen as soon as early next week.

00:50 And as I'm sure you all know now, it comes after Kate Forbes,

00:56 who was seen as his main, if only, leadership arrival,

01:01 announced that she would not be running and would be backing Mr. Swinney instead.

01:07 So, Rachel, it's back to the future for the SNP.

01:11 >> That is exactly what the Conservatives have been using in their

01:15 messaging over the past day, actually, yes.

01:18 Obviously, he was previously SNP leader, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon,

01:23 described as the right hand man of Alex Salmond.

01:25 So, yes, very much somebody who's been at the heart of the SNP for decades, really.

01:31 And it does look like he is pretty certain to be first minister.

01:34 Of course, the ballot for SNP leader does close in midday on Monday,

01:41 but we are very much expecting nobody else at this point to put themselves forward.

01:46 If you look at what other people in the SNP have been saying over the past day,

01:49 they are very pleased to see John Swinney standing and

01:53 they're also very pleased to see him reach out to Kate Forbes and

01:55 offer her a very senior position within his cabinet.

01:58 So it seems like everybody has been, everyone's been sort of placated by this decision.

02:03 And so I imagine there won't be anybody else at this point who puts their hat in the ring.

02:07 >> And I imagine the SNP hierarchy were very keen to avoid another brutal leadership contest.

02:16 >> Yes, if you remember under Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP was just an election powerhouse, really.

02:21 The polls just seemed nothing could dent them under Nicola Sturgeon.

02:25 And yet when we had this leadership contest last year, some divisions got exposed,

02:29 some rifts got exposed.

02:31 There was some quite bitter back and forth between the candidates as well.

02:35 And that really hasn't been fixed in the past year.

02:38 There are still this camp of Kate Forbes supporters on the back benches in

02:42 Holyrood that kind of have just been a bit of a thorn in the back of Hamza Yusuf.

02:47 Whereas hopefully for the SNP, this will be sort of fixed by having the two

02:53 candidates come together in this contest.

02:57 >> Very much, I guess.

02:59 Hamza Yusuf was seen as a continuity candidate after Nicola Sturgeon.

03:05 John Swinney's really continuity 3.0, really.

03:09 Have we got any sense at all that he's going to do things differently to bring the party together?

03:16 >> That's a very good point.

03:17 I think somebody pointed out yesterday that if he does win the leadership contest,

03:21 it will mean the SNP has only had four different leaders since 1990.

03:26 So very much, yes, a continuity person who was seen as very close to former leaders,

03:31 Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond as well.

03:36 His speech yesterday, where he launched his leadership bid, was very much focused on

03:40 sort of steadying the ship, sort of bringing the party back together and

03:44 focusing on sort of the bread and butter politics.

03:46 Which I think as a former finance secretary, you'd expect him to do.

03:50 And you'd expect him to sort of maybe go back to, I suppose,

03:53 boring politics of just getting on with the job.

03:56 And I think as much as people will have said that they want to change,

03:59 I think they also want to see a return to, well, as Ash Vagan put it,

04:04 a return to competent government.

04:06 So I think people want to see that as well.

04:09 And obviously, we'll need to wait and see how much that happens.

04:13 But I think given the cost of living crisis, given the NHS crisis as well,

04:17 I think people want to see those issues fixed first and foremost.

04:21 And the big question, I guess, if everything goes as we're expecting it,

04:26 is what job is Kate Forbes doing again in a Sweeney cabinet?

04:31 Any intelligence around that at all?

04:34 There's lots of talk about that at the moment.

04:36 She is going to be offered a significant role within the cabinet.

04:41 But I think if I was her having stepped aside to allow John Sweeney to be coronated,

04:45 I would be demanding a deputy first minister and finance secretary, to be honest.

04:51 And previously, when I've spoken to John Sweeney about the appointment of Shona Robison,

04:55 the current deputy first minister and finance secretary,

04:58 he praised that decision, saying it was a good idea to have one person doing both jobs

05:03 because both of those jobs require you to be over all the different portfolios in government.

05:08 He, of course, himself held both jobs at once, too.

05:11 So I think we will keep those two jobs to one person and give that to Kate Forbes.

05:16 That's my opinion.

05:18 We'll see what transpires.

05:19 Thanks very much for that, Rachel.

05:21 I'm sure another busy day ahead.

05:22 Please keep an eye on Scotsman.com throughout the day.

05:25 We'll have all the very latest updates.

05:28 If you can, do subscribe, then you'll be able to read and watch everything on our website.

05:33 And if you're out and about today, please do pick up a copy of the paper from me and from Rachel.

05:38 So bye for now.

05:39 Goodbye.

05:40 ( music )

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