SNP suspend rebel backbencher Fergus Ewing

Is open debate now too painful for the SNP? Fergus Ewing, one of the party’s longest serving (and most outspoken) politicians has tonight been suspended for a week after criticising his own government’s ministers and policies. The disciplinary action comes after a series of statements Ewing made in recent months attacking the direction of the SNP — which in some cases resulted in his voting against government itself. Heresy in Humza Yousaf’s ultra-conformist regime…

It was thought Ewing would lose the whip in June after he voted with the opposition in the no confidence vote against junior minister Lorna Slater — a decision deemed ‘very, very serious’ by Yousaf — whose deposit return scheme policy has cost Scottish businesses tens of millions of pounds and is delayed until 2025. But moments after the vote, Yousaf was hurried away — not to suspend Ewing, but to announce the death of his mother, SNP trailblazer Winnie Ewing.