Yousaf can't claim the moral high ground amid this SNP political soap opera

The First Minister finds himself in difficult territory when he uses the conduct of Boris Johnson to make the case for Independence, writes Murdo Fraser.

First Minister Humza Yousaf. PIC: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

To paraphrase the old joke, there are now as many former SNP First Ministers who have been arrested by the police than there are giant pandas in Scotland.

It is a strange reflection on devolution that while Henry McLeish, David McLetchie and Wendy Alexander were all hounded out from their leadership positions by SNP campaigns, not one of them had a brush with the constabulary. Yet both former SNP First Ministers have now been arrested after leaving office as part of investigations into what they did in the job. Quite a record.

While the timing of Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest on Sunday – and her seven hour interrogation – was arranged by agreement, her successor Humza Yousaf’s timing was less fortunate. On Friday, he took to social media to opine on Boris Johnson. His predecessor used to use that slot to tell us what book to read at the weekend, but our current First Minister decided the former Prime Minister’s antics are another reason for independence.

Now I have long been a critic of Boris Johnson. I called for him to resign, and believe that his conduct in not heeding the rules during Covid was reprehensible.

But however substantial or insubstantial a man he is, his conduct is not a reason for constitutional change or the break-up of the UK. He was resigning as a MP – something one would have thought the SNP would welcome - and a £50 fine does not quite equate with an investigation into where £600,000 of Party funds may or may not have gone.

Yet Mr Yousaf felt he had to tell us that “Westminster is consumed with this third-rate political soap opera. The sooner Scotland becomes independent…the better.”

The hubris of the statement became evident when his predecessor played a starring role in a first-rate political thriller, just 48 hours later.

Credit where it is due, Ms. Sturgeon got closer to her ambition of becoming an international figure as news of her arrest was reported around the globe - possibly engendering global selfie regret on the part of those international figures who remember her name. But the hypocrisy of Mr Yousaf – and his implausibility – is breathtaking.

Margaret Ferrier arguably broke Covid rules as badly as Boris Johnson, but that’s not a reason to vote for the Union. Patrick Grady was found by a Commons committee to have sexually harassed a male SNP staff member. He was given the lightest of sanctions and is planning to stand for Parliament again. What does that tell us about the case for constitutional change?

Former SNP MP Natalie McGarry went to jail for embezzlement. Is that the ball of Indyref2 on the slates?

The SNP likes to portray Westminster as a moral cesspit that righteous Scotland should get rid of, but when it comes to wrongdoing I would contend that, person for person, the SNP is more than punching above its weight when it comes to malfeasance. It is almost enough to make you want to say that we will ‘take no lessons’ from the SNP when it comes to moral turpitude, but I think they have copyrighted that phrase.

When it comes to third-rate soap operas it would also appear that Ms. Sturgeon has been trying to write her own to change the headlines. She’s taking driving lessons. She is considering becoming a foster parent. She has passed her driving theory test.

All riveting stuff perhaps if you are part of the Nicola cult, but not nearly as interesting for the rest of us as her, her husband, and the SNP treasurer, being arrested by Police Scotland.

For the current First Minister to try to claim the moral high ground really does remind us that people in glass houses shouldn’t sleep in the nude.

We cannot and should not comment on the live case that is Operation Branchform, but what has become clear is that many people in the SNP believe that the Sturgeon-Murrell regime was bad for the Party and its culture.

As the man who stood as the ‘continuity candidate’, I would humbly suggest Humza Yousaf should be more worried about his own party’s standards than lecturing us all about ex-leaders of other parties. Indeed, contrast Rishi Sunak publicly criticising Boris Johnson in the name of transparency, with the First Minister’s refusal to suspend his predecessor from the SNP, something that was the norm in the past when other Nationalists were being investigated for potential wrongdoing. Weak, weak, weak, some might say.

If Mr Yousaf has a moral compass it would appear to only point south and is no use in trying to help him map away out of this crisis.

Breaking Covid rules told us about the personal excesses of Boris Johnson, but told us nothing about Conservatism or the case for the Union and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous. Nor does Natalie McGarry’s embezzlement tells anything about secession, nor Patrick Grady’s sexual harassment about separation.

But Humza Yousaf’s reaction to the crisis engulfing his party does tell us something about the weakness of his leadership and the paucity of his case for independence.

Before he starts lecturing us about independence he should prove his own from his predecessor. Before he calls for change he should prove he has to guts to change the culture within in his own Party.

And perhaps he should also remember the words of the SNP treasurer Colin Beattie after his Police Scotland interrogation. He said he had been in worse positions, like when he was shelled by artillery in Beirut. Rather than criticise others, perhaps its time for the current First Minister to put his tin helmet on.

Murdo Fraser is the Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife