Senior Scottish Nationalist Party figures have warned the party will lose the next Holyrood election without an urgent rethink of purpose and policy.
Members within the party have expressed doubt that the party’s leader, John Swinney, is strong enough to direct the scale of change required.
It comes after the party was reduced from 48 MPs in 2019 to nine as Labour crushed the party across the country in the General Election.
Many predict the SNP, which has enjoyed massive electoral success over the past decade, faces a potential catastrophe in the Scottish parliament elections in 2026.
Stewart McDonald, a former MP for Glasgow South told The Guardian: “What does an SNP that has learned its lesson look and sound like? I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the scale of the challenge we are facing as a party.”
One current senior MSP said: “The way things are now, we run the real risk of not winning in 2026. We have to change course and John needs to be decisive.”
One former MP said: “For several years we’ve looked vain, self-indulgent and out of touch with voters’ priorities. Yes independence was line one of the manifesto, but we offered no credible roadmap to deliver it.”
A former minister said: “It’s hard after 19 years to badge yourself as offering something new and different. We need to pick three or four things that we’re going to fix and do them well.”
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It comes as some of Scotland’s best-known music acts including Paolo Nutini, Biffy Clyro and Young Fathers warned John Swinney that the country is facing a “cultural catastrophe” due to cuts in arts funding.
Other bands and artists to sign the music industry letter include The Proclaimers, Mogwai, Glasvegas, Frightened Rabbit, Joesef, and The Twilight Sad.
Alex Kapranos, lead singer of Franz Ferdinand, said: “This is a disappointingly short-sighted cut which will cost exponentially more than what is saved in the short-term financially. The arts are how a nation knows who they are. Without them we have an identity as two dimensional as the bottom line of a balanced account.”
SNP ministers have been emphasising the challenging situation the Scottish Government faces around public finances, as it battles with the impact of inflation and the pressures of public sector pay deals. Culture secretary Angus Robertson said: “I understand the concerns of many people within the artistic community, and I want to reassure those individuals that the Scottish Government is listening very carefully to the representations they are making.”
It comes as a number of MSPs have said that, even if the SNP narrowly wins the most seats at Holyrood that Scottish Labour is more likely to be able to form a minority government due to the Scottish government’s falling out with the Scottish Greens under Humza Yousaf.
One former MP said: “Would it be the worst thing if we lose in 2026.
“We could spend that time in opposition training our activists to campaign, strengthening our base, working on other countries accepting us, and use the next Holyrood election for a big push on independence.”
