Stephen Flynn tells Green deal critics to put up or shut up as he refuses to rule out Holyrood switch

The SNP’s leader in Westminster is considered by some to be a future leader of the party.

Stephen Flynn has told high-profile internal critics of the Bute House Agreement between the SNP and the Scottish Greens to lay out more details of their proposal if they want to change how the party governs in Holyrood.

The SNP’s leader in Westminster, who was visiting the Rutherglen constituency to campaign ahead of a by-election, said he believed the reason’s behind the deal were still salient.

The Aberdeen South MP also refused to rule out moving from London to Edinburgh and standing as an MSP in the 2026 election.

Stephen Flynn MP campaigns alongside Scottish National Party candidate and councillor Katy Loudon ahead of the upcoming by-election

Mr Flynn’s comments come after several high-profile critics of Humza Yousaf’s leadership of the SNP, including failed leadership candidate Kate Forbes, said the SNP’s membership should be given a vote on the coalition deal with the Greens at the party’s conference in October.

Members had previously voted 95 per cent in favour of the deal when it was struck, and Mr Yousaf and Ms Forbes effectively campaigned for the deal to continue or to be cancelled respectively during the SNP leadership contest.

Asked whether he agreed there should be a vote on the matter, Mr Flynn said that voters would not “take kindly to us navel-gazing” while they tackled the cost-of-living crisis.

He also told opponents to put forward an alternative proposal if they had opposition to the coalition.

He said: "I think the key thing from my perspective is that we have certainty within Holyrood in terms of how we can govern and govern effectively and the Bute House Agreement helps us to do just that.

"If anyone is advocating something alternate to that they are going to have to lay out their proposals in a lot more detail.

"Because what we do know that through the agreement we can get budgets passed, we can get our policy agenda in place and that certainty is important, not just to us in terms of our legislative agenda but to the public as well.

"I don’t think the public would necessarily take kindly to us navel-gazing at a time when they are having to deal with the real issues of the day, namely the cost-of-living crisis.”

Pressed on the issue, he said it was important that members were allowed to “disagree without being disagreeable”, but again said those who wanted the deal scrapped should bring forward an alternative proposal.

Mr Flynn said: “What I am saying to you and everyone is that agreement was put in place for a reason, those reasons are still very much in play.

"It is not for me to try and offer an alternate, it is for people who are suggesting an alternate to outline what that would look like and perhaps but a little bit more detail into it at this moment in time.”

The SNP figure, who is viewed as extremely ambitious and as a potential future leader, was also asked whether he would stand to become an MSP in the 2026 Holyrood election and if he wanted to one day be First Minister.

He said: “I’m not going to seek to predict anything in politics, I think that is a bit of a fool’s errand after the last few years.

"But I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone that all SNP politicians would likely want to be in Holyrood.

"But my mind is fully focused not just on the general election but making sure that we get the fantastic Katy Loudon elected in the by-election.”