SNP MPs are “frustrated” about the lack of progress towards independence, an outgoing representative for the party has said.
Douglas Chapman, the MP for Dunfermline and former party treasurer, told The Scotsman there was a lack of “real leadership” in the party.
“The only way we’re going to win independence is by knocking doors and explaining to people the opportunities that lie before our nation,” said the MP, who had backed Kate Forbes for leader.
“While Humza has said he wants to be the First Minister and the first activist, to be fair, I think he’s been pretty shoulder to the wheel, out and about, and making sure he’s got a high profile within the party.
"I think overall what we are lacking, and maybe this will come after the October conference, is real leadership, based on a strategy that will take us right to the door of independence, and then have enough in the tank to get us over the line.”
Chapman, who is one of eight of the party’s MPs not seeking re-election next year, told the paper the SNP must “re-establish our leadership credentials across the board”.
And he said he had been disappointed by his inability to make the SNP’s finances “more accessible to the membership” before resigning from the role.
Upon stepping down as SNP treasurer in May 2021, he complained he “had not received the support or financial information required to carry out the fiduciary duties" of the role.
He said: “My role as treasurer really was, I went in with the ambition of making the accounts much more accessible to the membership.
“And unfortunately the way things worked out, I wasn’t really allowed to do that, which was a great disappointment.
“I think there’s a good story to tell, in lots of different ways, but that’s not how other people saw it.
"They left me with no choice, but to walk away, and I’m not really a guy for walking away a lot of the time.
"But there comes a point where you realise you’re tired of pushing this big boulder up the hill, so I thought it was best to perhaps leave that to somebody else.”
Chapman also revealed that he believed Scotland would be independent shortly after he was first elected in 2015.
“Quite honestly, when I was elected in 2015, I genuinely thought we’d get independence soon after, but it’s not quite worked out like that,” he said.
