Leader: Labour win would present challenge for SNP's goal of independence

There is, as the saying goes, many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip, but with each passing week the prospect of Sir Keir Starmer moving into Downing Street after a resounding Labour victory in a General Election this year seems all the more likely.

For First Minister Humza Yousaf, this would change the dynamics of his SNP-le d administration’s dealings with ministers at Westminster.

Mr Yousaf told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he has already written to Sir Keir, inviting him to Edinburgh for talks on how their parties could cooperate.

“I think there’s plenty we can work on,” Mr Yousaf said. “There’ll be disagreements, the constitution perhaps being the obvious one, but I do think there’s plenty of areas we could work on.”

This is new territory for the SNP leader, who has known nothing but Tory rule at Westminster in his political career since being elected as an MSP in 2011.

Under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and now Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives have not held a large number of seats in Scotland. Meanwhile, the SNP has dominated Scotland’s political landscape, bolstering the cause of independence .

But if Labour picks up enough Scottish seats in the next election, the SNP might have little option but to forge a less antagonistic relationship with UK ministers than that to which the party has become accustomed.

Labour is on course to benefit not only from an unpopular Tory government that has been in power for 14 years, but also from an increasingly unpopular SNP government in power for 17 years.

Sir Keir’s party may even win a majority of Scottish seats, as former Labour heartlands return to the fold.

As he opens the door to a more constructive relationship with the man likely to be the next prime minister, Mr Yousaf is perhaps aware that one of the biggest threats to achieving his party’s goal of independence might be a Labour government at Westminster backed by the Scottish electorate.