John Swinney is making a mess of the SNP’s election campaign

Humza Yousaf lasted just over 400 days as SNP leader. Will his replacement John Swinney get that far? The question arises so soon into his tenure because of Swinney’s decision to oppose the suspension of a former cabinet colleague. Michael Matheson resigned as health secretary in February after the taxpayer was left with an £11,000 bill for iPad data usage incurred while he was on a family holiday in Morocco. After initially claiming ignorance as to how the bill was run up, Matheson later claimed that his sons had hotspotted the data to watch football matches. Yousaf stood by Matheson, calling him a ‘man of integrity’, a locution the opposition seized on to accuse the SNP hierarchy of putting mates before rules. 

Yousaf’s departure and Swinney’s arrival, marked by copious reference to his self-cultivated nickname ‘Honest John’, was an opportunity for the party to put the scandal behind them.