SNP did not ‘sufficiently do the work’ after indyref defeat, veteran MP says

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The SNP made a mistake by failing to properly examine the reasons for Scotland voting to stay in the UK in the aftermath of the independence referendum, the party’s longest-serving MP has said.

Pete Wishart said campaigning in the run-up to the vote in 2014 was the “most exciting time in my life”, adding it was a “different type of experience” to when he had played with Scots rock band Runrig.

Speaking about the referendum campaign, Mr Wishart – one of a smaller number of SNP MPs returned to Westminster in July’s general election – said: “Living through it felt such a pleasure and such a privilege.”

As membership of the SNP soared in the aftermath of the vote for Scotland to stay in the UK, he said the party got “caught up again in what was happening next” rather than properly examining the reasons for the result.

Mr Wishart spoke out at a fringe event at the SNP conference in Edinburgh after the recent publication of his book Inside the Indyref, from diaries he kept at the time of the campaign.

It has been published as Scotland approaches the 10th anniversary of the referendum vote, which was held on September 18 2014.

“None of us knew what would happen in the aftermath of the independence referendum,” he said

“But I don’t think we sufficiently did the work, I don’t think we sat down properly to examine what happened, where it went wrong.”

Recalling that “everyone was joining” the SNP and the Greens, the other pro-independence party which had been involved in the campaign for a Yes vote in 2014, the MP said there was also a “movement towards the general election” in 2015.

He remembered: “We were looking at opinion polls – the Labour vote was collapsing and we were getting close to 50% in polls, and it was right into 2015 and the success of that.”

That general election saw the SNP win a record 56 of the 59 Scottish seats at Westminster – reducing Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats to having just one MP in Scotland each.

Asked if the party had made a “mistake” in failing to properly examine the reasons for the loss of the referendum, Mr Wishart said: “I think on reflection, yes.”

He added that carrying out such work as this would have been “almost like doing the work when the sun shines, getting the roof fixed”.

Mr Wishart continued: “There was a point we probably should have done that work at that point, but it was the good times.

“Now we are left in the situation where things aren’t so good and we are starting a bit more seriously to look at where we are and try to learn lessons.”