IAN Blackford has defended his and Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership of the SNP after fierce criticism from former party politicians.
Following what Blackford himself described as a “terrible” result for the SNP in the General Election, the likes of Joanna Cherry, Angus MacNeil and Alex Neil have all blasted the previous leadership of the party.
Cherry – who lost her Edinburgh South seat to Labour – demanded Sturgeon apologise for the loss the party suffered.
MacNeil – a former Western Isles SNP MP – blamed the “personality cult” of Sturgeon for the party’s downfall at Westminster and called for John Swinney to quit his post as leader.
Neil said Sturgeon was the “main author” of the defeat alongside former first minister Humza Yousaf and Swinney who he argued now must “make way” for fresh leadership under Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes and SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.
Former SNP Westminster leader Blackford called Cherry “bitter” over the weekend and speaking on BBC Radio Scotland on Monday he defended he and Sturgeon’s record, adding that the party was behind Swinney.
Asked if he had to take responsibility for the loss of seats, Blackford said: “I take responsibility for everything that Nicola and others and myself included achieved over the period we were in the leadership.
“We need to reflect, Gary [Robertson], Nicola fought eight elections when she became leader of the SNP, won them all, and in large part was responsible for that group of 56 being elected in 2015.
“When I hear discussions that there wasn’t debate over independence, what the SNP had and still has was a political cabinet. These things were discussed on an ongoing basis.”
Cherry blamed the SNP’s poor electoral result on “a lack of debate” under Sturgeon’s leadership.
Pressed on whether the SNP needed to have a different leader to Swinney, Blackford went on: “No we most certainly don’t. John has to be given time to show that he can lead the party and lead the government.
“I think John understands the challenges that we face. What do the public want? They want the SNP to concentrate on the priorities of the people, make sure we deliver across a broad range of public services. John gets that.
“I regret our vote declined down to 30% but let’s keep a sense of perspective and remember the job we have been elected to do in that parliament [Holyrood].
“I think we need to reflect on the fact it was Nicola Sturgeon who led the party to eight electoral victories.”
Blackford – who stood down at the election – was also asked about whether the election result suggested Scots had rejected independence.
He said while support for independence remains at a “relatively high level”, the election was really about the cost of living and the SNP had a “job to do” to persuade people that independence is the route to “sustainable economic growth”.
“What we need to do is to make sure we can build a narrative as to why independence is needed to deal with the challenges we face,” Blackford went on.
“There’s no point in shouting about independence from the rooftops unless you can take the people with you and persuade them that, in particular, independence is the route to sustainable economic growth to create the resources to invest in our public services and to deal with the challenges we face in poverty.
“So there’s a job to do, we’ll reflect what happened last week, but make sure we’ve got the answers to take us forward.”
