Sturgeon takes aim at young people in politics

Back to Scotland, where Nicola Sturgeon is once again stealing the spotlight. This time the former first minister decided the Charleston literary festival held in Sussex this weekend would be the perfect place from which to ruffle feathers in her own party. The SNP’s Dear Leader bemoaned the number of young people entering politics ‘for all the wrong reasons’, telling her audience that: ‘I think politics, including in my own party now, is probably too full of young people who have just come through the political ranks’. Ouch.

It’s a kick in the teeth to senior SNP figures like net zero secretary Màiri McAllan who spent time as, er, Sturgeon’s SpAd before she became an MSP at 28. Or Mhairi Black, the SNP MP who was elected to parliament at just 20 years old while she was still studying at Glasgow University. Or the party’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, who, after working as a political researcher for SNP politicians became an Aberdeen councillor in his twenties before going on to become an MP when he was just 30.