Five biggest challenges for Murray Foote, the SNP's new chief executive

Murray Foote has taken over as the party’s new chief executive – but he has one massive in-tray to deal with

It’s Murray Foote’s first week in charge of the SNP – and he has one heck of an in-tray to deal with.

Last week the SNP announced Mr Foote, the party’s former communications chief and ex-Daily Record editor, was taking over as chief executive. But the £95,000-a-year job is not an enviable one.

The SNP has been embroiled in an ongoing police investigation, has come under serious criticism for its lack of transparency, and is facing dwindling finances and slumping election hopes.

Scottish independence supporters. Rebuilding the SNP's membership base will be one of the first key tasks in Murray Foote's in-tray. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Clearly Mr Foote is more than capable – he wouldn’t have secured the top job if he wasn’t – and there is a chance he can turn all of this around and pull off a stunning comeback for the SNP. But this will be far from easy.

We take a look at the five things Mr Foote will have to tackle as the SNP’s new chief executive.

Reputational damage

Only last year the SNP seemed to be a well-oiled machine and a united, formidable unit. Fast forward to August 2023, and that no longer seems to be the case.

Rebuilding the SNP's membership base, linked to independence support, will be one of Murray Foote's main priorities. Picture: PA

The glory days are over – the party’s reputation has tanked in the months since Nicola Sturgeon resigned.

This is mainly due to Operation Branchform, the ongoing police investigation into party finances, which saw the arrest of the former chief executive Peter Murrell, Ms Sturgeon and former treasurer Colin Beattie all arrested.

Although all three were later released without charge, the images of Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell’s family home in Glasgow being raided by police is still etched in the country’s conscience. Couple this with a perceived lack of transparency within the party, which was one of the reason’s Mr Foote had to resign from the SNP in the first place.

It is clear the party needs a fresh start, and the appointment of Mr Foote could provide exactly that. Mr Murrell had held the position for more than two decades, and it was perhaps time there was a bit of a shake-up.

Murray Foote

Mr Foote will be well aware that reputational damage is the first and biggest task he will need to tackle as chief executive – and quickly.

Money, money, money

Aside from the ongoing police investigation into party finances, new figures from the Electoral Commission revealed the SNP had a deficit of £800,000 last year. One of the reasons for this is the party is not receiving as much in donations anymore.

This could be down to the cost-of-living crisis, forcing everyone to tighten their purse strings. But if Mr Foote can encourage more people to make big donations to the party, it would show the party has a solid support basis and give them more money to play with.

The party will need to bring this deficit down fast, particularly as there is an expensive general election looming around the corner.

See off the rise of Labour

It looks almost certain Labour will win the next general election, and one way they will do this is by taking seats off the SNP here in Scotland. The polls show Labour is inching closer and closer to the SNP, and may even overtake them as the largest party in Scotland at Westminster.

This is an uncomfortable place to be if you’re the new SNP chief executive. The SNP could lose up to half of its MPs based on recent polls, and Mr Foote will need to get a solid campaign strategy together to widen the gap between the SNP and Labour, and see off what could be an embarrassing result.

The first big election test for Mr Foote will be in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, which is being billed as a straight fight between the SNP and Labour.

Raising membership numbers – or at least stopping the decline

The party has infamously lost 30,000 members in recent years.

It is still by far the biggest party in Scotland, but is way down on the post-2014 heydays and is not something that can just be brushed under the carpet. Something needs to be done – and fast.

Humza Yousaf has been dealt a difficult hand in terms of timing in taking the top job, but regardless of the poor starting point he and Mr Foote will need to work together to appeal to more people. As well as keeping the members they still have on side during the cost-of-living crisis, they will need to see if they can entice old members to come back, and see what they can do to attract new people in as well.

There has been a lot of upheaval and uncertainty in the party in the past year – and perhaps now with Mr Yousaf and Mr Foote firmly in place they can get back to some kind of stability.

Making sure the dream will never die

As we get further and further away from the 2014 independence referendum, the possibility of a second chance to vote on Scotland’s constitutional future seems less and less likely.

If Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon weren’t able to bring about Scottish independence, what chance do Mr Foote and Mr Yousaf have?

The independence movement is fractured. Support for independence has remained around the 50 per cent mark for some time now.

However, support for the SNP is falling, suggesting the party is no longer able to appeal to its core audience – independence supporters. The SNP is trying really hard – they’ve appointed Jamie Hepburn as the dedicated independence minister in the Scottish Cabinet, they held an independence convention back in June, and have said they will agree on a new independence strategy at its annual conference in October.

But nothing seems to be sticking in any kind of meaningful way. In taking up his appointment, Mr Foote told journalists: “I am delighted to take up this important role and look forward to helping build the campaign for independence.”

Now we need to see if he can get independence supporters back on board and find a viable way of holding a second referendum.