Reaction to 2026 Holyrood bid ‘not pleasant’

The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said party infighting over his bid to stand at the 2026 Scottish Parliament election has been unedifying.

Flynn currently represents the constituency of Aberdeen South in the House of Commons.

But last week the MP announced he intends to stand for the Aberdeen South and North Kincardine seat at Holyrood, currently held by the SNP’s Audrey Nicoll.

Flynn confirmed he would aim to hold his Westminster seat until the next general election, due in 2029, but would not accept two salaries.

His announcement, in The Press and Journal newspaper, has caused anger within the SNP.

Flynn told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show: “None of this is particularly edifying for anyone.

“I don’t want to be doing this, I don’t want to be having these discussions on television, trying to defend myself.

“But that’s the reality of politics sometimes – it’s not pleasant.

“I’m not going to shy away, I’m not going to be hounded out from standing for what I believe in.”

Flynn said that in politics there was always going to be a strong reaction to people seeking to do things differently.

Asked whether Nicoll was angry at him when he told her he wanted to challenge her for her seat, he said: “No.”

“She told me she wasn’t overly surprised,” he added.

He said it was “not a pleasant situation” for him or Nicoll.

Flynn revealed he called her the night before he announced his plan to stand but explicitly denied asking Nicoll to stand aside for him.

He said the pair had a “fairly cordial conversation” where he made clear his intentions.

Flynn added that he hoped the campaign could be carried out in good faith and in good spirit.

But a source close to Nicoll told BBC Scotland News that she felt there was an “underlying inference” in the phone call that he wanted her to step aside.

The call between the pair would likely have taken place sooner, Flynn said, had it not been for “significant goings on in Aberdeen locally”.

This was an apparent reference to Nicoll’s husband, and former Aberdeen City Council co-leader, Alex Nicoll quitting the party and criticising its decisions in the city.

Ahead of the 2021 election, the SNP changed internal rules to require MPs to resign their seat at Westminster to fight for selection to Holyrood.

The move was widely seen as an attempt to prevent then-Edinburgh South West MP and frequent internal party critic Joanna Cherry from standing.

The party’s ruling body – the National Executive Committee (NEC) – could decide to scrap the rule for contests ahead of 2026.

Flynn has said he understood that rule to be “election specific”.

He said: “The rules don’t preclude me from standing – that would be a decision for the NEC.”

First Minister John Swinney said last week that the SNP had yet to make a decision on whether its politicians could hold a dual mandate – where a single person sits in both Westminster and Holyrood.

Swinney, who held seats at both Westminster and Holyrood between 1999 and 2001, told BBC Scotland News: “We’ve had times in the past when we’ve had dual mandates – I had a dual mandate myself for two years in the early days of devolution.

“The party has got to come to its conclusions about these particular issues and it will do in the fullness of time.”

Flynn also revealed that Swinney had been aware of his plans in advance of the announcement.

He added: “The people who needed to know what my intentions were, were aware of what my intentions were.”

Flynn has been tipped as a future SNP leader, but he said there would not be a contest to replace Swinney for a “long, long time”.

He said any leadership election would be in the “dim and distant future”.

Flynn added that he wanted to keep his Westminster seat, which overlaps with part of the Holyrood seat he hopes to contest, to avoid causing a costly by-election.

He also reiterated that he would not accept a second parliamentary salary.

The party previously criticised former Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross for holding seats at Westminster and Holyrood, as well as being a professional football referee.

Speaking at the SNP conference in August, Flynn joked about Ross having “one too many work commitments”.

And in 2021, SNP MSP Karen Adam claimed Ross was “failing” his constituents “by thinking he can do both jobs properly”.

Flynn’s comments came after the SNP announced on Saturday that the NEC was seeking to cut 10 of the party’s 26 headquarters jobs.

A consultation with staff has opened, along with a voluntary redundancy scheme, in a push to bring down costs for a party which has struggled to attract major donors.

Flynn described the move as a “tough, but necessary, decision”.

The Westminster leader was also asked about the row over Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray using a ministerial car to attend football games.

But he insisted it was “not a scandal”.

Gray, whose portfolio includes sport, has been under fire after it emerged he had been chauffeured to six football matches at Hampden since becoming a minister, four of which included the team he supports.

The Aberdeen fan apologised last week in a ministerial statement and conceded he should have went to a “wider range” of football matches.

Flynn defended Gray and told The Sunday Show: “Our sports minister going to sporting events is not a scandal.

“He’s doing his job and he’s doing his job to the best of his ability.”

He added: “What tends to happen in politics is you tend to create relationships, have discussions with people and that could only happen by being in those places at certain times.

“Neil is a huge sports fan, I think it’s right that he, as sports minister, goes to sporting matches, I’m struggling to see what the scandal is.”

But speaking on the same programme, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the issue was a scandal.

She added: “You need to think about what your priorities are.

“When social care is in crisis, why are you going to football games?”

And Scottish Tory finance spokesman Craig Hoy said his party had made “the very reasonable ask” of the Scottish government for minutes of the meetings held at the matches to be published.