The SNP needs a new leader for new times

Sympathy for Humza Yousaf over his Gaza relatives mustn’t cloud the party’s judgement

It’s over. The SNP may not realise it yet, but after 16 years in power it is in a spiral of decline. The Rutherglen and Hamilton West was the SNP’s worst by-election defeat ever. That 20% swing to Labour was unprecedented - much worse than than the Garscadden by-election in 1978 when Donald Dewar halted the first SNP electoral surge in it tracks. There were extenuating circumstances of course - the main one being the former SNP MP, Margaret Ferrier being sacked in a recall ballot for breaking Covid lockdown rules. But the Rutherglen result was far from irrelevant and confirmed the general run of opinion polls. Support for the SNP is tanking. This week’s Panelbase/Times poll suggested that the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar could become First Minister in 2026. That isn’t going to happen. But the days when the SNP dominated politics ar every level in Scotland are over . Times are changing and their troubled leader, Humza Yousaf, is, to use the SNP’s favourite cliche, now on the wrong side of history.