Euan McColm Euan McColm

Can the new chief executive of the SNP win members’ trust?

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As plot twists go, it’s a doozy. Five months ago, Murray Foote resigned as the SNP’s communications director after misleading journalists over party membership numbers. The former editor of the Daily Record stormed off, throwing a grenade over his shoulder. He had only misled journalists because he himself had been misled. A day after Foote’s departure (political cliché level: bombshell), the SNP’s chief executive Peter Murrell took responsibility for the mess and fell on his sword. Now, in a remarkable turn of events, Foote is back in the game. On Monday, he takes up the position of SNP chief executive. He’s the new Peter Murrell.

The SNP spin goes that Foote was the standout candidate amid a very strong field. Perhaps there was a clamour among serious political operators to fill the post vacated by a man subsequently arrested as a suspect in a police investigation into allegations of fraud. We shall have to take the nationalists’ word.

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